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::: Early modern themes
Other themes
At the onset of the early modern period, trends in various regions of the world represented a shift away from medieval modes of organization, politically and economically. Feudalism declined in Europe, and Christendom saw the end of the Crusades and of religious unity in Western Europe under the Roman Catholic Church. The old order was destabilized by the Protestant Reformation, which caused a backlash that expanded the Inquisition and sparked the disastrous 
In the Americas, pre-Columbian peoples had built a large and varied civilization, including the
Development Centre Studies The World Economy Historical Statistics: Historical Statistics
', OECD Publishing, , pages 259–261 By the mid-18th century, India was a major proto-industrializing region. Various Chinese dynasties and Japanese shogunates controlled the East Asian sphere. In Japan, the Edo period from 1600 to 1868 is also referred to as the early modern period. In Korea, the early modern period is considered to have lasted from the rise of the Joseon Dynasty to the enthronement of King Gojong. By the 16th century, Asian economies under the Ming dynasty and Mughal Bengal were stimulated by trade with the Portuguese, the Spanish, and the Dutch, while Japan engaged in the Nanban trade after the arrival of the first European Portuguese during the
In the early Ming dynasty, urbanization increased as the population grew and as the division of labor grew more complex. Large urban centers, such as Nanjing and Beijing, also contributed to the growth of private industry. In particular, small-scale industries grew up, often specializing in paper, silk, cotton, and porcelain goods. For the most part, however, relatively small urban centers with markets proliferated around the country. Town markets mainly traded food, with some necessary manufactures such as pins or oil. In the 16th century the Ming dynasty flourished over maritime trade with the Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch Empires. The trade brought in a massive amount of silver, which China at the time needed desperately. Prior to China's global trade, its economy ran on a paper money. However, in the 14th century, China's paper money system suffered a crisis, and by the mid-15th century, crashed. The silver imports helped fill the void left by the broken paper money system, which helps explain why the value of silver in China was twice as high as the value of silver in Spain during the end of the 16th century.
China under the later Ming dynasty became isolated, prohibiting the construction of ocean going sea vessels. Despite isolationist policies the Ming economy still suffered from an inflation due to an overabundance of Spanish New World silver entering its economy through new European colonies such as Macau. Ming China was further strained by victorious but costly wars to protect Korea from Japanese Invasion. The European trade depression of the 1620s also hurt the Chinese economy, which sunk to the point where all of China's trading partners cut ties with them:
The Sengoku period that began around 1467 and lasted around a century consisted of several continually "warring states".
Following contact with the Portuguese Empire, Portuguese on Tanegashima Isle in 1543, the Japanese adopted several of the technologies and cultural practices of their visitors, whether in the military area (the arquebus, European-style cuirasses, European ships), religion (Christianity), Early Modern Art#Japanese art, decorative art, language (integration to Japanese of a Japanese language#Vocabulary, Western vocabulary) and culinary: the Portuguese introduced tempura and valuable refined sugar.
Central government was largely reestablished by Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi during the
During the early modern era, the Ottoman Empire enjoyed an growth of the Ottoman Empire, expansion and consolidation of power, leading to a ''Pax Ottomana''. This was perhaps the golden age of the empire. The Ottomans expanded southwest into North Africa while battling with the re-emergent Persian Shi'a Safavid Empire to the east.
, ''U.S. Department of State'' (retrieved 10 October 2006). Following Muslim Arab and Turkic conquests, Pashtun ''Ghazw, ghazis'' (warriors for the faith) invaded and conquered much of northern India during the Lodhi dynasty and Suri dynasty. Pashtun forces also invaded Persia, and the opposing forces were defeated in the Battle of Gulnabad. The Pashtuns later formed the Durrani Empire.
Many major events caused Europe to change around the start of the 16th century, starting with the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the fall of Muslim Spain and the discovery of the Americas in 1492, and Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation in 1517. In England the modern period is often dated to the start of the Tudor period with the victory of Henry VII of England, Henry VII over Richard III of England, Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. Early modern European history is usually seen to span from the start of the 15th century, through the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries, until the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century.
The early modern period is taken to end with the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and the Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire at the Congress of Vienna. At the end of the early modern period, the Second British Empire, British and Russian Empire, Russian empires had emerged as world powers from the multipolar contest of colonial empires, while the three great Asian empires of the early modern period, stagnation of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Turkey, Mughal Empire#Decline, Mughal India and Qing China#Reigns of the Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors, Qing China, all entered a period of stagnation or decline.
Johannes Gutenberg is credited as the first European to use movable type printing, around 1439, and as the global inventor of the mechanical printing press. Nicolaus Copernicus formulated a comprehensive heliocentrism, heliocentric cosmology (1543), which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe. His book, ''De revolutionibus orbium coelestium'' (''On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres'') began modern astronomy and sparked the Scientific Revolution. Another notable individual was Machiavelli, an Italian political philosopher, considered a founder of modern political science. Machiavelli is most famous for a short political treatise, The Prince, a work of Political realism, realist political theory. The Swiss Paracelsus (1493–1541) is associated with a medical revolution while the Anglo-Irish Robert Boyle was one of the founders of modern chemistry. In visual arts, notable representatives included the "three giants of the High Renaissance", namely Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael, Albrecht Dürer (often considered the greatest artist of Northern Renaissance), Titian from the Venetian painting, Venetian school, Peter Paul Rubens of the Flemish Baroque traditions. Famous composers included Guillaume Du Fay, Heinrich Isaac, Josquin des Prez, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Claudio Monteverdi, Jean-Baptiste Lully.
Among the notable royalty of the time was Charles the Bold (1433–1477), the last House of Valois, Valois Duke of Burgundy, known as ''Charles the Bold (or Rash)'' to his enemies, His early death was a pivotal moment in European history. Charles has often been regarded as the last representative of the feudal spirit, although in administrative affairs, he introduced remarkable modernizing innovations. Upon his death, Charles left an unmarried nineteen-year-old daughter, Mary of Burgundy, as his heir. Her marriage would have enormous implications for the political balance of Europe. Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor secured the match for his son, the future Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, with the aid of Mary's stepmother, Margaret. In 1477, the territory of the Duchy of Burgundy was annexed by France. In the same year, Mary married Maximilian, Archduke of Austria. A conflict between the Burgundian side (Maximilian brought with himself almost no resources from the Empire) and France ensued, culminating in the Treaty of Senlis(1493) which gave the majority of Burgundian inheritance to the Habsburg (Mary already died in 1482). The rise of the Habsburg dynasty was a prime factor in the spreading of the Renaissance.
In Central Europe, King Matthias Corvinus (1443–1490), a notable nation builder, conqueror (Hungary in his time was the most powerful in Central Europe) and patron, was the first who introduced the Renaissance outside of Italy. In military area, he introduced the Black Army of Hungary, Black Army, one of the first standing armies in Europe and a remarkably modern force.
Some noblemen from the generation that lived during this period have been attributed the moniker "the last knight", with the most notable being the above mentioned Maximilian I (1459–1519), Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard, Chevalier de Bayard(1476–1524), Franz von Sickingen(1481–1523) and Götz von Berlichingen(1480–1562). Maximilian (although Claude Michaud opines that he could claim "last knight" status by virtue of being the last medieval epic poet.) was actually a chief modernizing force of the time (whose reform initiatives led to Europe-wide revolutions in the areas of warfare and communications, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor#Legacy, among others), who broke the back of the knight class (causing many to become robber barons) and had personal conflicts with the three other men on the matter of the knight's status.
Claude de Lorraine was the first Duke of Guise, from 1528 to his death. Claude distinguished himself at the battle of Marignano (1515), and was long in recovering from the twenty-two wounds he received in the battle. In 1521, he fought at Fuenterrabia, and Louise of Savoy ascribed the capture of the place to his efforts. In 1523 he became governor of Champagne (province), Champagne and Burgundy (region), Burgundy, after defeating at Neufchâteau, Vosges, Neufchâteau the Holy Roman Empire, imperial troops who had invaded this province. In 1525 he destroyed the Anabaptist German Peasants' War, peasant army, which was overrunning Lorraine (province), Lorraine, at Lupstein, near Saverne (Zabern). On the return of Francis I from captivity in 1528, Claude was made Duke of Guise in the peerage of France, though up to this time only princes of the royal house had held the title of duke and peer of France. The Guises, as cadets of the sovereign house of Lorraine and descendants of the House of Valois-Anjou, house of Anjou, claimed precedence of the House of Bourbon, Bourbon princes of Prince of Condé, Condé and Prince of Conti, Conti.
The Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba, 3rd Duke of Alba was a nobleman of importance in the early modern period, nicknamed the "Iron Duke" by the Protestants of the Low Countries because of his harsh rule and cruelty. Tales of atrocities committed during his military operations in Flanders became part of Dutch and English folklore, forming a central component of the Spanish Black Legend.
In England, Henry VIII of England, Henry VIII was the King of England and a significant figure in the history of the English monarchy. Although in the greater part of his reign he brutally suppressed the influence of the Protestant Reformation in England (see also William Tyndale, ''Martyrdom of William Tyndale''.) a movement having some roots with John Wycliffe in the 14th century, he is more popularly known for his political struggles with Roman Catholic Church, Rome. These struggles ultimately led to the separation of the Church of England from papal authority, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and establishing himself as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. Though Henry reportedly became a Protestant on his death-bed, he advocated Catholic ceremony and doctrine throughout his life. Royal support for the English Reformation began with his heirs, the devout Edward VI of England, Edward VI and the renowned Elizabeth I of England, Elizabeth I, whilst daughter Mary I of England, Mary I temporarily reinstated papal authority over England. Henry also oversaw the legal union of England and Wales with the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542. He is also noted for his Wives of Henry VIII, six wives, two of whom were Decapitation, beheaded.
The Hussite Wars, Hussite Crusades involved the military actions against and amongst the followers of Jan Hus in Bohemia#Hussite Bohemia, Bohemia ending ultimately with the Battle of Grotniki. Also known as the Hussite Wars, they were arguably the first European war in which hand-held gunpowder weapons such as muskets made a decisive contribution. The Taborite faction of the Hussite warriors were basically infantry, and their many defeats of larger armies with heavily armored knights helped effect the infantry revolution. In totality, the Hussite Crusades were inconclusive.
The last crusade, the ''Crusade of 1456'', was organized to counter the expanding Ottoman Empire and lift the Siege of Belgrade (1456), Siege of Belgrade, and was led by John Hunyadi and Giovanni da Capistrano. The siege eventually escalated into a major battle, during which Hunyadi led a sudden counterattack that overran the Turkish camp, ultimately compelling the wounded Sultan Mehmet II to lift the siege and retreat. The siege of Belgrade has been characterized as having "decided the fate of Christendom". The noon bell ordered by Pope Callixtus III commemorates the victory throughout the Christian world to this day.
Nearly a hundred years later, the Peace of Augsburg officially ended the idea that all Christians could be united under one church. The principle of ''cuius regio, eius religio'' ("whose the region is, [it shall have] his religion") established the religious, political and geographic divisions of Christianity, and this was established in international law with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, which legally ended the concept of a single Christian hegemony, i.e. the "One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church" of the Nicene Creed. Each government determined the religion of their own state. Christians living in states where their denomination was ''not'' the established church were guaranteed the right to practice their faith in public during allotted hours and in private at their will. With the Treaty of Westphalia, the European wars of religion, Wars of Religion came to an end, and in the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 the concept of the national sovereignty, sovereign national state was born. The ''Corpus Christianum'' has since existed with the modern idea of a tolerant and diverse society consisting of many different communities.
In 1648, the peasants of Ukraine joined the Zaporozhian Cossacks in rebellion against Poland–Lithuania during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, because of the social and religious oppression they suffered under Polish rule. In 1654 the Ukrainian leader, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, offered to place Ukraine under the protection of the Russian Tsar, Aleksey I. Aleksey's acceptance of this offer led to another Russo-Polish War (1654–1667). Finally, Ukraine was split along the river Dnieper, leaving the western part (or Right-bank Ukraine) under Polish rule and eastern part (Left-bank Ukraine and Kiev) under Russian. Later, in 1670–71 the Don Cossacks led by Stenka Razin initiated a major uprising in the Volga region, but the Tsar's troops were successful in defeating the rebels. In the east, the rapid Russian exploration and colonisation of the huge territories of Siberia was led mostly by Cossacks hunting for valuable furs and ivory. Russian explorers pushed eastward primarily along the Siberian river routes, and by the mid-17th century there were Russian settlements in the Eastern Siberia, on the Chukchi Peninsula, along the Amur River, and on the Pacific coast. In 1648 the Bering Strait between Asia and North America was passed for the first time by Fedot Popov and Semyon Dezhnyov.
The Age of Discovery was a period from the early 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century, during which European ships traveled around the world to search for new trading routes and partners to feed burgeoning capitalism in Europe. They also were in search of trading goods such as gold, silver and spices. In the process, Europeans encountered peoples and mapped lands previously unknown to them. This factor in the early European modern period was a
The 15th to 18th century period is marked by the first European colonies, the rise of strong centralized governments, and the beginnings of recognizable European nation states that are the direct antecedents of today's states. Although the Renaissance included revolutions in many intellectual pursuits, as well as social and political upheaval, it is perhaps best known for European artistic developments and the contributions of such polymaths as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, who inspired the term "Polymath, Renaissance man".
During the Baroque period the Thirty Years' War in Central Europe decimated the population by up to 20%. In 1648, the
In the Ethiopian Highlands, the Solomonic dynasty established itself in the 13th century. Claiming direct descent from the old Axumite royal house, the Solomonic ruled the region well into modern history. In the 16th century, Shewa and the rest of Ethiopian Empire, Abyssinia were Ethiopian-Adal War, conquered by the forces of Ahmed Gurey of the Adal Sultanate to the northwest. The conquest of the area by the Oromo migrations, Oromo ended in the contraction of both Adal and Abyssinia, changing regional dynamics for centuries to come.
The Ajuran Sultanate, Ajuran Empire, which was one of the largest and strongest empires in the Horn of Africa, began to decline in the 17th century, and several powerful successor states came to prominence. The Geledi Sultanate, established by Ibrahim Adeer, was a notable successor of the Ajuran Sultanate. The Sultanate reached its apex under the successive reigns of Sultan Yusuf Mahamud Ibrahim (reigned 1798 to 1848), who successfully consolidated Geledi power during the Bardera wars, and Sultan Ahmed Yusuf (Gobroon), Ahmed Yusuf, who forced regional powers such as the Omani Empire to pay tribute. The Majeerteen Sultanate was a Somali people, Somali Sultanate in the Horn of Africa. Ruled by Boqor, King Osman Mahamuud during its golden age, it controlled much of northern and central Somalia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The polity had all of the organs of an integrated modern state and maintained a robust trading network. Along with the Sultanate of Hobyo ruled by Sultan Yusuf Ali Kenadid, the Majeerteen Sultanate was eventually annexed into Italian Somaliland in the early 20th century, following the military Campaign of the Sultanates.
The term ''colonialism'' is normally used with reference to discontiguous overseas empires rather than contiguous land-based empires, European or otherwise. European colonisation during the 15th to 19th centuries resulted in the spread of Christianity to Sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, Australia and the Philippines.
A recent development in early modern history is the creation of Atlantic World as a category. The term generally encompasses western Europe, West Africa, North and South and America and the Caribbean islands. It seeks to show both local and regional development and the connections between the various geographical regions.
The Great Divergence in scientific discovery, technological innovation, and economic development began in the early modern period as the pace of change in Western countries increased significantly compared to the rest of the world.
During the Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17 century, empiricism and modern science replaced older methods of studying nature – European research methods that mainly involved reading texts by ancient writers. In ancient times, natural philosophers made observations of nature and came up with explanations, but never conducted experiments to test those explanations, because creating an artificial situation was considered an invalid way to discover the rules of nature. The scientific method of testing hypotheses was first recorded in the 10th century by Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), inspiring Roger Bacon to begin experimenting in 13th century Europe. By the time of the Revolution, these methods resulted in accumulation of knowledge that overturned ideas inherited from Ancient Greece (primarily Aristotelian physics, which includes the modern domains of physics, chemistry, biology) through the Middle Ages and Islamic scholars. Major changes of the Scientific Revolution and the 18th century included:
* The ancient geocentric model of the solar system (the planets circle the Earth) was replaced by the heliocentric model (Earth and other planets circle the Sun). Known as the Copernican Revolution, the 1543 publication of Nicolaus Copernicus's ''De revolutionibus orbium coelestium'' (''On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres'', which was influenced by Mu'ayyad al-Din al-Urdi and was based on detailed astronomical observations) is often used to mark the beginning of the Scientific Revolution. Heliocentrism was resisted by the Catholic Church because it contradicted the Bible; the Catholic Inquisition imprisoned Galileo Galilei (sometimes called the "father of modern science" for his many empirical discoveries) for promoting this theory.
* Armed with detailed observations from Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler found the idea that the planets moved in ellipses rather than on perfect celestial spheres, publishing Kepler's laws of planetary motion. The commonly held idea that the fixed stars are mounted on a large sphere was replaced by the idea that they are distant suns. Astrology and astronomy began to separate into different disciplines, with only astronomy using scientific methods. Telescope technology improved tremendously as did the History of optics, study of optics.
* Aristotelian physics#Natural motion, Aristotle's laws of motion were demonstrated to be incorrect, and were replaced by Newton's laws of motion and Newton's law of universal gravitation. The 1687 publication of Isaac Newton's 1687 ''Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Principia'' is often used to mark the end of the Scientific Revolution.
* A revival of atomism (denied by Aristotle) and corpuscularianism began to undermine the classical elements. Both 8th century Islamic experimenter Jabir ibn Hayyan and 17th century Christian experimenter Robert Boyle have been described as the founders of modern chemistry, both worked as alchemists before the fields were clearly separated. Boyle argued for corpuscularism in the 1661 book ''The Sceptical Chymist'', and discovered Boyle's Law of gases. Phlogiston theory was refuted by empirical discovery of conservation of mass, among other discoveries bring the chemical revolution. The discovery of modern chemical elements would not begin until the 19th century in the late modern period, followed by experimental confirmation of atoms.
* Finally overcoming the difficulties human corpses to perform dissections, the anatomical descriptions of the 2nd century Galen were updated by the 1543 publication of ''De humani corporis fabrica'' by Andreas Vesalius, considered a foundational text of modern medicine and History of anatomy#Medieval to Early Modern Anatomy, early modern anatomy. The 1628 work ''De Motu Cordis'' by William Harvey was a major advance in the understanding of the circulatory system.
* The field of microbiology began with the invention of the microscope and the first observations of microorganisms, famously by Anton van Leeuwenhoek in the 1670s and probably also by Athanasius Kircher in the 1640s. Though microorganisms were (correctly) proposed as the cause of infectious diseases as soon as they were discovered, this theory was generally dismissed. Though scientific investigation undermined humorism in medicine, miasma theory remained dominant throughout the early modern period. The germ theory of disease was not widely accepted until the 1880s, in the late modern period.
* Modern scientific dentistry was founded by Pierre Fauchard.
* The smallpox vaccine was invented in the 1770s and popularized by Edward Jenner in the 1790s, though it was unclear at the time how it worked.
* Carl Linnaeus published the first modern taxonomy (biology), taxonomy in 1735, replacing Aristotle's Great Chain of Being. Binomial nomenclature was used in publications by Gaspard Bauhin as early as 1622, and by Linnaeus in 1753.
* The ancient theory of spontaneous generation remained dominant throughout the early modern period, but the history of evolutionary thought includes some who questioned the strictest form of this dogma. The idea of partial common descent was famously promoted by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon. Evolution was not fully articulated and accepted until the 19th century.
* Modern geology began to take shape mainly in the 18th and 19th centuries. Early on, Nicolas Steno proposed the law of superposition in 1669, and various writers in the history of geology began to question the notion derived from the Christian Bible that the Earth was only about 6,000 years old and relatively unchanged over time. Steno and James Hutton are often considered founders of the modern field. The study of fossils and rock types became systematic.
* Early developments in the history of electromagnetism during this era include gradual teasing out of the relationships between electricity, magnetism, and lightning; development of the electrostatic generator and Leyden jar for storage; and the discoveries of ferromagnetism, "electrics" and "non-electrics" (Electrical conductor, conductors and Electrical insulator, insulators). The now-obsolete fluid theory of electricity was developed to explain electrical phenomena in terms of "vitreous" and "resinous" fluids (later recognized as positive and negative electrical charges). Electrochemistry was born with the discovery of voltaic electricity (which would provide a power source for later experimentation) and pyroelectricity. Around 1784, Coulomb's law mathematically described the strength of electrical attraction. The discovery that electricity could cause muscles to contracted was termed "Galvanic electricity".
In the new social sciences:
* Historical linguistics emerged in the late 18th century as a field after the discovery of the common origin what are now called Indo-European languages by philologist William Jones (philologist), William Jones.
* The fields of anthropology and paleoanthropology emerged in the 18th century, but much of early modern anthropology is now considered scientific racism.
* The 1776 multi-book publication ''The Wealth of Nations'' by Adam Smith is considered the foundational text of classical economics.
Scientific discovery would accelerate in the late modern period, and continues today.
The Age of Enlightenment is also called the Age of Reason because it marked a change from the medieval tradition of scholasticism based on Christian dogma and the often Renaissance magic, occultist approach of Renaissance philosophy. Instead, reason became the central source of knowledge, beginning the era of modern philosophy, especially in Western philosophy. The period was typified in Europe by the great system-builders, philosophers who presented unified systems of epistemology, metaphysics, logic, and ethics and often politics and the physical sciences as well.
Early 17th-century philosophy is often called the Age of Rationalism and is considered to succeed Renaissance philosophy and precede the Age of Enlightenment, but some consider it as the earliest part of the Enlightenment era in philosophy, extending that era to two centuries. This era includes Isaac Newton's ''Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Principia'' and René Descartes' Cogito, ergo sum, "I think therefore I am" (1637). The 18th century saw the beginning of secularization in Europe, rising to notability in the wake of the French Revolution.
Immanuel Kant classified his predecessors into two schools: the Rationalism, rationalists and the Empiricism, empiricists, The three main rationalists are normally taken to have been René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, and Gottfried Leibniz.
Roger Williams founded Providence Plantations in New England, based on the principle of separation of church and state after being exiled by Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Enlightenment began at Harvard in 1646. The first great advances towards modern science were made in the mid-17th century, most notably the theory of gravity by Isaac Newton (1643–1727). Newton, Spinoza, John Locke (1632–1704) and Pierre Bayle (1647–1706) were philosophers sparking the ideas for the furthering of the Enlightenment.
French French art salons and academies, salon culture culminated in the Enlightenment's most influential publication, the great ''Encyclopédie'' (1751–1772), edited by Denis Diderot (1713–1784) with contributions by hundreds of leading philosophes (intellectuals) such as Voltaire (1694–1778) and Montesquieu (1689–1755). The Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns shook up the French Academy in the 1690s, elevating new discoveries over Greek and Roman wisdom. The French Enlightenment was received in Germany, notably fostered by Frederick the Great, the king of Prussia, and gave rise to a flowering of German philosophy, represented foremost by Immanuel Kant.
The French and German developments were further influential in Scottish Enlightenment, Scottish, Russian Enlightenment, Russian, Enlightenment in Spain, Spanish and Enlightenment in Poland, Polish philosophy.
The Enlightenment flourished until about 1790–1800, after which the emphasis on reason gave way to Romanticism's emphasis on emotion and a Counter-Enlightenment gained force.
''King's sister—queen of dissent: Marguerite of Navarre (1492–1549) and her evangelical network''
(''Studies in medieval and Reformation traditions, 1573–4188''; v. 139). Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2009. (2 v.: (xxii, 795 p.) (v. 1), 9789004177611 (v. 2) gathered around her and protected a circle of vernacular poets and writers, including Clément Marot, Pierre de Ronsard and François Rabelais.
The end of the early modern period is usually associated with the Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain around 1750, but began to make substantial changes in many European countries by around 1800.
The Age of Revolutions starts at the end of the early modern period and continues into the late modern period, denoting in the decline of Absolute monarchy, absolutism in Europe. Near the end of the early modern period were the Treaty of Paris (1783), Second Treaty of Paris which ended the American Revolution, the French Revolution in 1789, and the Napoleonic Wars. The Congress of Vienna in 1815 marked the end of this period of political upheaval and frequent war, with the rise of new concepts of nationalism and reorganization of military forces. 1815 is the latest year commonly reckoned as the end of the early modern period.
Toward the middle and latter stages of the Age of Revolution, the French political and social revolutions and radical change saw the French governmental structure transform. It was previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy. It changed to forms based on Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment principles of citizenship and inalienable rights. The first revolution led to government by the National Assembly (French Revolution), National Assembly, the second by the Legislative Assembly (France), Legislative Assembly, and the third by the French Directory, Directory.
The changes were accompanied by violent turmoil, which included the trial and execution of Louis XVI, vast bloodshed and repression during the Reign of Terror, and the French Revolutionary Wars involving every other major European power. Subsequent events that can be traced to the Revolution include the Napoleonic Wars, two separate restorations of the monarchy, and two additional revolutions as modern France took shape. In the following century, France would be governed at one point or another as a republic, constitutional monarchy, and two different empires.
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904pp; short articles on Britain by experts. * * A highly influential statement. *
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fordham.edu Websites
from the introduction to the pioneering ''Cambridge Modern History'' (1902–1912)
Society for Renaissance Studies
Early Modern Culture
(archived 25 September 2011)
Early Modern Resources
Video films * : Crash Course (YouTube), Crash Course World History #18 * : Crash Course World History #19 * : Crash Course : World History #21 * : Crash Course World History #23 * : Crash Course World History #24 * : Crash Course World History #25 * : Crash Course World History #26 * : Crash Course World History #28 {{Authority control Early Modern period, Historical eras History of Europe by period Modern history, 15th century in Europe, . 16th century in Europe, . 17th century in Europe, . 18th century in Europe, . Articles which contain graphical timelines World history
modern history
The term modern period or modern era (sometimes also called modern history or modern times) is the period of history that succeeds the Middle Ages (which ended approximately 1500 AD). This terminology is a historical periodization that is applie ...
spans the period after the Late Middle Ages of the post-classical era () to the beginning of the Age of Revolutions (). Although the chronological limits of this period are open to debate, the timeframe
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to co ...
is variously demarcated by historians as beginning with the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople
The Fall of Constantinople, also known as the Conquest of Constantinople, was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Empire. The city fell on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 53-day siege which had begun o ...
in 1453, the Renaissance period in Europe and Timurid Central Asia, the Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent, the end of the Crusades, the Age of Discovery (especially the voyages of Christopher Columbus
Between 1492 and 1504, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus led four Spanish transatlantic maritime expeditions of discovery to the Americas. These voyages led to the widespread knowledge of the New World. This breakthrough inaugurated the per ...
beginning in 1492 but also Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (; ; c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea.
His initial voyage to India by way of Cape of Good Hope (1497–1499) was the first to link E ...
's discovery of the sea route to India
The Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India was the first recorded trip directly from Europe to the Indian subcontinent, via the Cape of Good Hope. Under the command of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, it was undertaken during the rei ...
in 1498), and ending around the French Revolution in 1789, or Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
's rise to power
Rise or RISE may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities
* '' Rise: The Vieneo Province'', an internet-based virtual world
* Rise FM, a fictional radio station in the video game ''Grand Theft Auto 3''
* Rise Kujikawa, a video ...
.
Historians in recent decades have argued that from a worldwide standpoint, the most important feature of the early modern period was its spreading globalizing
Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...
character. New economies and institutions emerged, becoming more sophisticated and globally articulated over the course of the period. The early modern period also included the rise of the dominance of mercantilism
Mercantilism is an economic policy that is designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports for an economy. It promotes imperialism, colonialism, tariffs and subsidies on traded goods to achieve that goal. The policy aims to reduce a ...
as an economic theory. Other notable trends of the period include the development of experimental science, increasingly rapid technological progress, secularized civic politics, accelerated travel due to improvements in mapping and ship design, and the emergence of nation states.
Timeline
This timetable gives a basic overview of states, cultures and events which transpired roughly between the years 1450 and 1850. Sections are broken by political and geographic location.Late modern period
In many periodizations of human history, the late modern period followed the early modern period. It began approximately around the year 1800 and depending on the author either ended with the beginning of contemporary history after World War ...
bar:General color:age
from: 1450 till: 1700 shift:(-120,3) text: Renaissance
from: 1450 till: 1750 shift:(-150,-8) text: Age of Discovery
from: 1517 till: 1650 shift:(0,3) text: Reformation
from: 1545 till: 1650 shift:(0,-8) text:Counter-Reformation
The Counter-Reformation (), also called the Catholic Reformation () or the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. It began with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) a ...
from: 1543 till: 1687 shift:(100,-5) text: Scientific Revolution
from: 1687 till: 1804 shift:(0,4) text: Age of Enlightenment
bar:General color:filler
from: 1765 till: 1850 shift:(0,-8) text: Age of Revolution
from: 1760 till: 1850 shift:(0,4) text: Industrial Revolution
bar:Portugal color:age
from: 1491 till: 1683 text:Early globalization
Early may refer to:
History
* The beginning or oldest part of a defined historical period, as opposed to middle or late periods, e.g.:
** Early Christianity
** Early modern Europe
Places in the United States
* Early, Iowa
* Early, Texas
* Early ...
from: 1683 till: 1808 text: Portuguese Enlightenment
bar:Portugal color:filler
from: 1807 till: 1814 text: P.W
from: 1814 till: 1820 text:
from: 1450 till: 1491 text: Early discoveries
from: 1820 till: 1850 text: Liberalism
bar:Spain color:age
from: 1492 till: 1850 shift:(0,3) text: Spanish Empire
from: 1492 till: 1700 text: Spanish Renaissance
from: 1700 till: 1807 text:Spanish Enlightenment
The ideas of the Age of Enlightenment ( es, Ilustración) came to Spain in the 18th century with the new Bourbon dynasty, following the death of the last Habsburg monarch, Charles II, in 1700. The period of reform and ' enlightened despotism' u ...
bar:Spain color:filler
from: 1450 till: 1492 text: Reconquista
from: 1807 till: 1814 text: P.W
from: 1814 till: 1850 text: Nationalism
bar:England/Britain color:age
from: 1485 till: 1801 shift:(-85,-3) text:Early modern England
Early Modern Britain (c.16th−18th centuries) — the Early Modern period in the history of the British Isles
The Kingdom of Great Britain
The Kingdom of Great Britain (officially Great Britain) was a Sovereign state, sovereign country ...
from: 1707 till: 1801 text: Great Britain
bar:England/Britain color:filler
from: 1450 till: 1485 shift:(7,4) text: Medieval England
from: 1801 till: 1850 shift:(0,4) text: Industrial Revolution
from: 1801 till: 1850 shift:(0,-8) text: United Kingdom
bar:France color:age
from: 1494 till: 1610 text: French Renaissance
from: 1610 till: 1789 text:Ancien Régime
''Ancien'' may refer to
* the French word for "ancient, old"
** Société des anciens textes français
* the French for "former, senior"
** Virelai ancien
** Ancien Régime
** Ancien Régime in France
{{disambig ...
from: 1453 till: 1789 shift:(0,4) text: Early Modern France
bar:France color:filler
from: 1450 till: 1453 shift:(3,0) text: M.F
from: 1789 till: 1792 shift:(0,4) text: French Revolution
from: 1789 till: 1850 shift:(9,-8) text: Late Modern France
bar:Scandinavia color:age
from: 1523 till: 1814 shift:(0,3) text:Denmark–Norway
Denmark–Norway (Danish and Norwegian: ) was an early modern multi-national and multi-lingual real unionFeldbæk 1998:11 consisting of the Kingdom of Denmark, the Kingdom of Norway (including the then Norwegian overseas possessions: the Faroe I ...
from: 1523 till: 1814 shift:(0,-8) text:Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
bar:Scandinavia color:filler
from: 1450 till: 1523 text:Kalmar Union
The Kalmar Union (Danish language, Danish, Norwegian language, Norwegian, and sv, Kalmarunionen; fi, Kalmarin unioni; la, Unio Calmariensis) was a personal union in Scandinavia, agreed at Kalmar in Sweden, that from 1397 to 1523 joined under ...
from: 1814 till: 1850 shift:(0,3) text: Denmark
from: 1814 till: 1850 shift:(0,-8) text: Sweden-Norway
bar:Germany color:age
from: 1450 till: 1618 shift:(-55,4) text:German Renaissance
The German Renaissance, part of the Northern Renaissance, was a cultural and artistic movement that spread among Germany, German thinkers in the 15th and 16th centuries, which developed from the Italian Renaissance. Many areas of the arts and ...
from: 1495 till: 1806 shift:(-75,4) text:Early Modern Holy Roman Empire
Early may refer to:
History
* The beginning or oldest part of a defined historical period, as opposed to middle or late periods, e.g.:
** Early Christianity
** Early modern Europe
Places in the United States
* Early, Iowa
* Early, Texas
* Early ...
from: 1495 till: 1555 text: Imperial Reform
from: 1522 till: 1618 shift:(10,-8) text: German Reformation
from: 1618 till: 1648 text: Thirty Years War
from: 1648 till: 1815 text: Kleinstaaterei
bar:Germany color:filler
from: 1450 till: 1495 text: Pre-I.R
from: 1806 till: 1815 shift:(0,4) text:Rhine Confederation
The Confederated States of the Rhine, simply known as the Confederation of the Rhine, also known as Napoleonic Germany, was a confederation of German client states established at the behest of Napoleon some months after he defeated Austria an ...
from: 1815 till: 1850 shift:(-3,-8) text: German Confederation
bar:Italy color:age
from: 1450 till: 1559 shift:(0,4) text: Italian Renaissance
from: 1494 till: 1559 text: Italian Wars
from: 1559 till: 1648 text: Italian Counter-Reformation
from: 1648 till: 1814 text:Foreign domination
Foreign domination is a term used in the historiography of multiple countries to characterize successive periods of rule by foreign powers.
China
China was under foreign rule in the years of the Yuan dynasty and of the Qing dynasty. Both dynastie ...
bar:Italy color:filler
from: 1450 till: 1494 text: Medieval Italy
from: 1814 till: 1850 text: Risorgimento
bar:Poland color:age
from: 1507 till: 1569 text: Polish Golden Age
from: 1569 till: 1795 text: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
bar:Poland color:filler
from: 1450 till: 1507 text:Medieval Poland
This article covers the history of Poland in the Middle Ages. This time covers roughly a millennium, from the 5th century to the 16th century. It is commonly dated from the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, and contrasted with a later Early Modern ...
from: 1795 till: 1850 text:Partitioned Poland
Partition may refer to:
Computing Hardware
* Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive
* Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job
Software
* Partition (database), the division of a ...
bar:Ottomans color:age
from: 1453 till: 1683 text: Ottoman growth
from: 1683 till: 1827 text: Ottoman stagnation
bar:Ottomans color:filler
from: 1450 till: 1453 shift:(3,0) text: O.R
from: 1827 till: 1850 text: Ottoman decline
bar:Persia/Iran color:age
from: 1501 till: 1736 text: Safavid dynasty
The Safavid dynasty (; fa, دودمان صفوی, Dudmâne Safavi, ) was one of Iran's most significant ruling dynasties reigning from 1501 to 1736. Their rule is often considered the beginning of modern Iranian history, as well as one of th ...
from: 1736 till: 1750 shift:(0,6) text: Afsharid dynasty
from: 1750 till: 1794 text: Zand dynasty
bar:Persia/Iran color:filler
from: 1450 till: 1468 shift:(16,4) text: Timurid dynasty
from: 1468 till: 1501 shift:(9,-10) text: Aq Qoyunlu
The Aq Qoyunlu ( az, Ağqoyunlular , ) was a culturally Persianate,Kaushik Roy, ''Military Transition in Early Modern Asia, 1400–1750'', (Bloomsbury, 2014), 38; "Post-Mongol Persia and Iraq were ruled by two tribal confederations: Akkoyunlu (Wh ...
from: 1794 till: 1850 text: Qajar dynasty
The Qajar dynasty (; fa, دودمان قاجار ', az, Qacarlar ) was an IranianAbbas Amanat, ''The Pivot of the Universe: Nasir Al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831–1896'', I. B. Tauris, pp 2–3 royal dynasty of Turkic peoples ...
bar:Russia color:age
from: 1547 till: 1721 text: Tsardom of Russia
from: 1721 till: 1850 text: Russian Empire
bar:Russia color:filler
from: 1450 till: 1547 text:Muscovy Muscovy is an alternative name for the Grand Duchy of Moscow (1263–1547) and the Tsardom of Russia (1547–1721). It may also refer to:
*Muscovy Company, an English trading company chartered in 1555
* Muscovy duck (''Cairina moschata'') and Domes ...
bar:C.Asia color:age
from: 1450 till: 1687 text: Chagatai Khanate
from: 1687 till: 1756 text: Zunghar Khanate
from: 1756 till: 1850 text: Russian Empire
bar:C.Asia color:filler
from: 1450 till: 1502 text: Golden Horde
bar:India color:age
from: 1526 till: 1707 text: Mughal Empire
from: 1707 till: 1818 text: Maratha Empire
bar:India color:filler
from: 1450 till: 1526 text:Delhi sultanate
The Delhi Sultanate was an Islamic empire based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for 320 years (1206–1526).
from: 1818 till: 1850 text:Company Raj
Company rule in India (sometimes, Company ''Raj'', from hi, rāj, lit=rule) refers to the rule of the British East India Company on the Indian subcontinent. This is variously taken to have commenced in 1757, after the Battle of Plassey, when ...
bar:China color:age
from: 1450 till: 1644 text: Ming Dynasty
from: 1644 till: 1840 text: Qing Dynasty
bar:China color:filler
from: 1840 till: 1850 text: Post-O.W
bar:Korea color:age
from: 1450 till: 1850 text: Joseon Dynasty
bar:Japan color:age
from: 1467 till: 1570 text: Sengoku
from: 1570 till: 1603 text: Azuchi–Momoyama
from: 1603 till: 1850 text: Edo period
bar:Japan color:filler
from: 1450 till: 1467 shift:(7,4) text: Muromachi
bar:Egypt color:age
from: 1517 till: 1683 text: Ottoman growth
from: 1683 till: 1805 text: Ottoman stagnation
bar:Egypt color:filler
from: 1450 till: 1517 text:Mamluks
Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') i ...
from: 1805 till: 1850 text: Muhammad Ali dynasty
bar:W.Africa color:age
from: 1464 till: 1591 text:Songhai Empire
The Songhai Empire (also transliterated as Songhay) was a state that dominated the western Sahel/Sudan in the 15th and 16th century. At its peak, it was one of the largest states in African history. The state is known by its historiographical ...
from: 1591 till: 1670 text:Mali Empire
The Mali Empire ( Manding: ''Mandé''Ki-Zerbo, Joseph: ''UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. IV, Abridged Edition: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century'', p. 57. University of California Press, 1997. or Manden; ar, مالي, Māl ...
from: 1670 till: 1850 text:Sahelian Kingdoms
The Sahelian kingdoms were a series of centralized kingdoms or empires that were centered on the Sahel, the area of grasslands south of the Sahara, from the 8th century to the 19th. The wealth of the states came from controlling the trade routes ...
from: 1455 till: 1850 shift:(30,5) text: European exploration
from: 1526 till: 1850 shift:(-5,-5) text:Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
bar:W.Africa color:filler
from: 1450 till: 1464 text: M.E
bar:N.America color:age
from: 1534 till: 1600 text: New France
from: 1600 till: 1770 text:British America
British America comprised the colonial territories of the English Empire, which became the British Empire after the 1707 union of the Kingdom of England with the Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, in the Americas from 16 ...
from: 1770 till: 1850 shift:(0,4) text: British Canada
from: 1770 till: 1850 shift:(0,-8) text: United States
bar:N.America color:filler
from: 1450 till: 1534 text:Mississippian
Mississippian may refer to:
* Mississippian (geology), a subperiod of the Carboniferous period in the geologic timescale, roughly 360 to 325 million years ago
*Mississippian culture, a culture of Native American mound-builders from 900 to 1500 AD ...
bar:Mexico color:age
from: 1521 till: 1535 shift:(33,-3) text: Spanish Conquest
from: 1535 till: 1821 text:New Spain
New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...
bar:Mexico color:filler
from: 1450 till: 1521 text:Aztec Empire
The Aztec Empire or the Triple Alliance ( nci, Ēxcān Tlahtōlōyān, Help:IPA/Nahuatl, jéːʃkaːn̥ t͡ɬaʔtoːˈlóːjaːn̥ was an alliance of three Nahua peoples, Nahua altepetl, city-states: , , and . These three city-states ruled ...
from: 1821 till: 1850 text: Late Modern Mexico
bar:Peru color:age
from: 1533 till: 1542 shift:(33,-3) text: Spanish Conquest
from: 1542 till: 1824 text: Viceroyalty of Peru
bar:Peru color:filler
from: 1450 till: 1533 text: Inca Empire
from: 1824 till: 1850 text:Republic of Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = National seal
, national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
bar:Brazil color:age
from: 1500 till: 1815 text:Colonial Brazil
Colonial Brazil ( pt, Brasil Colonial) comprises the period from 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese, until 1815, when Brazil was elevated to a kingdom in union with Portugal as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Durin ...
from: 1815 till: 1823 shift:(-6,5) text: UKPBA
bar:Brazil color:filler
from: 1450 till: 1500 text:Indigenous cultures
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
from: 1823 till: 1850 shift:(9,-4) text: Empire of Brazil
Other themes
Overview
At the onset of the early modern period, trends in various regions of the world represented a shift away from medieval modes of organization, politically and economically. Feudalism declined in Europe, and Christendom saw the end of the Crusades and of religious unity in Western Europe under the Roman Catholic Church. The old order was destabilized by the Protestant Reformation, which caused a backlash that expanded the Inquisition and sparked the disastrous European wars of religion
The European wars of religion were a series of wars waged in Europe during the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries. Fought after the Protestant Reformation began in 1517, the wars disrupted the religious and political order in the Catholic Chu ...
, which included the especially bloody Thirty Years' War and ended with the establishment of the modern international system in the Peace of Westphalia
The Peace of Westphalia (german: Westfälischer Friede, ) is the collective name for two peace treaties signed in October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster. They ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and brought pea ...
. Along with the European colonization of the Americas, this period also contained the Commercial Revolution and the Golden Age of Piracy. The globalization of the period can be seen in the medieval North Italian city-states and maritime republics, particularly Genoa, Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
, and Milan. Russia reached the Pacific coast in 1647 and consolidated its control over the Russian Far East in the 19th century. The Great Divergence took place as Western Europe greatly surpassed China in technology and per capita wealth.
As the Age of Revolutions dawned, beginning with revolts in America and France, political changes were then pushed forward in other countries partly as a result of upheavals of the Napoleonic Wars and their impact on thought and thinking, from concepts from nationalism to organizing armies. The early period ended in a time of political and economic change, as a result of mechanization in society, the American Revolution, and the first French Revolution; other factors included the redrawing of the map of Europe by the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna and the peace established by the Second Treaty of Paris, which ended the Napoleonic Wars.
In the Americas, pre-Columbian peoples had built a large and varied civilization, including the Aztec Empire
The Aztec Empire or the Triple Alliance ( nci, Ēxcān Tlahtōlōyān, Help:IPA/Nahuatl, jéːʃkaːn̥ t͡ɬaʔtoːˈlóːjaːn̥ was an alliance of three Nahua peoples, Nahua altepetl, city-states: , , and . These three city-states ruled ...
, the Inca civilization, the Maya civilization and its cities, and the Muisca. The European colonization of the Americas began during the early modern period, as did the establishment of European trading hubs in Asia and Africa, which contributed to the spread of Christianity
Christianity began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the 1st century in the Roman province of Judea, from where it spread throughout and beyond the Roman Empire.
Origins
Christianity "emerged as a sect of Judaism in Roman Palestine" in the syn ...
around the world. The rise of sustained contacts between previously isolated parts of the globe, in particular the Columbian Exchange
The Columbian exchange, also known as the Columbian interchange, was the widespread transfer of plants, animals, precious metals, commodities, culture, human populations, technology, diseases, and ideas between the New World (the Americas) in ...
that linked the Old World
The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by the ...
and the New World, greatly altered the human environment. Notably, the Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
and colonization of Native Americans began during this period. The Ottoman Empire conquered Southeastern Europe, and parts of West Asia and North Africa.
In the Islamic world
The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. In ...
, after the fall of the Timurid Renaissance, powers such as the Ottoman, Suri, Safavid
Safavid Iran or Safavid Persia (), also referred to as the Safavid Empire, '. was one of the greatest Iranian empires after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia, which was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often conside ...
, and Mughal
Mughal or Moghul may refer to:
Related to the Mughal Empire
* Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries
* Mughal dynasty
* Mughal emperors
* Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia
* Mughal architecture
* Mug ...
empires grew in strength (three of which are known as gunpowder empires for the military technology that enabled them). Particularly in the Indian subcontinent, Mughal architecture, culture, and art reached their zenith, while the empire itself is believed to have had the world's largest economy, bigger than the entirety of Western Europe and worth 25% of global GDP. Maddison, Angus (2003): Development Centre Studies The World Economy Historical Statistics: Historical Statistics
', OECD Publishing, , pages 259–261 By the mid-18th century, India was a major proto-industrializing region. Various Chinese dynasties and Japanese shogunates controlled the East Asian sphere. In Japan, the Edo period from 1600 to 1868 is also referred to as the early modern period. In Korea, the early modern period is considered to have lasted from the rise of the Joseon Dynasty to the enthronement of King Gojong. By the 16th century, Asian economies under the Ming dynasty and Mughal Bengal were stimulated by trade with the Portuguese, the Spanish, and the Dutch, while Japan engaged in the Nanban trade after the arrival of the first European Portuguese during the
Azuchi–Momoyama period
The was the final phase of the in Japanese history from 1568 to 1600.
After the outbreak of the Ōnin War in 1467, the power of the Ashikaga Shogunate effectively collapsed, marking the start of the chaotic Sengoku period. In 1568, Oda Nobuna ...
.
Meanwhile in Southeast Asia, the Toungoo Empire
The First Toungoo Empire ( my, တောင်ငူ ခေတ်, ; also known as the First Toungoo Dynasty, the Second Burmese Empire or simply the Toungoo Empire) was the dominant power in mainland Southeast Asia in the second half of the ...
along with Ayutthaya Ayutthaya, Ayudhya, or Ayuthia may refer to:
* Ayutthaya Kingdom, a Thai kingdom that existed from 1350 to 1767
** Ayutthaya Historical Park, the ruins of the old capital city of the Ayutthaya Kingdom
* Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya province (locally ...
experienced a golden age and ruled a large extent of Mainland Southeast Asia, with the Nguyen and Trinh lords de facto ruling the south and north of present day Vietnam respectively, whereas the Mataram Sultanate
The Sultanate of Mataram () was the last major independent Javanese kingdom on the island of Java before it was colonised by the Dutch. It was the dominant political force radiating from the interior of Central Java from the late 16th centu ...
was the dominant power in Maritime Southeast Asian. The early modern period experienced an influx of European traders and missionaries into the region.
Significant events
The modern era includes the early period, called the early modern period, which lasted from 1450 to around 1800 (most often 1815). Particular facets of early modernity include: * The rise of the Ottoman Empire * The Reformation andCounter-Reformation
The Counter-Reformation (), also called the Catholic Reformation () or the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. It began with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) a ...
* The Sengoku and Sakoku period
* The Spanish Reconquista
* The Age of Discovery
* Influence of Mughal
Mughal or Moghul may refer to:
Related to the Mughal Empire
* Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries
* Mughal dynasty
* Mughal emperors
* Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia
* Mughal architecture
* Mug ...
politics and culture over India
* The spread of Islam in Indonesia
* The Columbian exchange
The Columbian exchange, also known as the Columbian interchange, was the widespread transfer of plants, animals, precious metals, commodities, culture, human populations, technology, diseases, and ideas between the New World (the Americas) in ...
and European colonization of the Americas
* The Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
* The rise of mercantilism
Mercantilism is an economic policy that is designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports for an economy. It promotes imperialism, colonialism, tariffs and subsidies on traded goods to achieve that goal. The policy aims to reduce a ...
and capitalism
* The Golden Age of Piracy
* Stagnation
Stagnation may refer to one of the following
* Economic stagnation, slow or no economic growth.
* Era of Stagnation, a period of economic stagnation in Soviet Union
* Lost Decade (Japan), a period of economic stagnation in Japan
*Stagnation in flu ...
of the Ottoman Empire
* High Qing period
Important events in the early modern period include:
* The spread of the printing press ()
* Independence and influence of the Deccan Sultanates
The Deccan sultanates were five Islamic late-medieval Indian kingdoms—on the Deccan Plateau between the Krishna River and the Vindhya Range—that were ruled by Muslim dynasties: namely Ahmadnagar, Berar, Bidar, Bijapur, and Golconda. Th ...
(1490–1687)
* Ottoman–Persian Wars (1519–1823)
* The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and the Peace of Westphalia
The Peace of Westphalia (german: Westfälischer Friede, ) is the collective name for two peace treaties signed in October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster. They ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and brought pea ...
(1648) in Europe
* Transition from Ming to Qing (1618–1683)
* The English Civil War (1642–1651), the Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...
(1688–1689), and the union of Great Britain (1707)
* Mughal–Maratha Wars (1680–1707)
* The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) in Europe and North America
* Development of the Watt steam engine (1763–1775)
* The American War of Independence
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
from the British Empire (1775–1783)
* The French Revolution (1789–1799) and the Napoleonic Wars in Europe (1803–1815)
* The Congress of Vienna at the end of the Napoleonic Wars
* Latin American wars of independence ()East Asia
In Early Modern times, the major nations of East Asia attempted to pursue a course ofIsolationism
Isolationism is a political philosophy advocating a national foreign policy that opposes involvement in the political affairs, and especially the wars, of other countries. Thus, isolationism fundamentally advocates neutrality and opposes entang ...
from the outside world but this policy was not always enforced uniformly or successfully. However, by the end of the Early Modern Period, China, Korea and Japan were mostly closed and disinterested to Europeans, even while trading relationships grew in port cities such as Guangzhou and Dejima.
Chinese dynasties
Around the beginning of the ethnically Han Ming dynasty (1368–1644), China was leading the world in mathematics as well as science. However, Europe soon caught up to China's scientific and mathematical achievements and surpassed them. Many scholars have speculated about the reason behind China's lag in advancement. A historian named Colin Ronan claims that though there is no one specific answer, there must be a connection between China's urgency for new discoveries being weaker than Europe's and China's inability to capitalize on its early advantages. Ronan believes that China's Confucian bureaucracy and traditions led to China not having a scientific revolution, which led China to have fewer scientists to break the existing orthodoxies, like Galileo Galilei. Despite inventing gunpowder in the 9th century, it was in Europe that the classic handheld firearms, matchlocks, were invented, with evidence of use around the 1480s. China was using the matchlocks by 1540, after the Portuguese brought their matchlocks to Japan in the early 1500s. China during the Ming Dynasty established a bureau to maintain its calendar. The bureau was necessary because the calendars were linked to celestial phenomena and that needs regular maintenance because twelve lunar months have 344 or 355 days, so occasional leap months have to be added in order to maintain 365 days per year.In the early Ming dynasty, urbanization increased as the population grew and as the division of labor grew more complex. Large urban centers, such as Nanjing and Beijing, also contributed to the growth of private industry. In particular, small-scale industries grew up, often specializing in paper, silk, cotton, and porcelain goods. For the most part, however, relatively small urban centers with markets proliferated around the country. Town markets mainly traded food, with some necessary manufactures such as pins or oil. In the 16th century the Ming dynasty flourished over maritime trade with the Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch Empires. The trade brought in a massive amount of silver, which China at the time needed desperately. Prior to China's global trade, its economy ran on a paper money. However, in the 14th century, China's paper money system suffered a crisis, and by the mid-15th century, crashed. The silver imports helped fill the void left by the broken paper money system, which helps explain why the value of silver in China was twice as high as the value of silver in Spain during the end of the 16th century.
China under the later Ming dynasty became isolated, prohibiting the construction of ocean going sea vessels. Despite isolationist policies the Ming economy still suffered from an inflation due to an overabundance of Spanish New World silver entering its economy through new European colonies such as Macau. Ming China was further strained by victorious but costly wars to protect Korea from Japanese Invasion. The European trade depression of the 1620s also hurt the Chinese economy, which sunk to the point where all of China's trading partners cut ties with them: Philip IV Philip IV may refer to:
* Philip IV of Macedon (died 297 BC)
* Philip IV of France (1268–1314), Avignon Papacy
* Philip IV of Burgundy or Philip I of Castile (1478–1506)
* Philip IV, Count of Nassau-Weilburg (1542–1602)
* Philip IV of Spain ...
restricted shipments of exports from Acapulco
Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , also , nah, Acapolco), is a city and major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semicircular bay and has bee ...
, the Japanese cut off all trade with Macau, and the Dutch severed connections between Goa and Macau.
The damage to the economy was compounded by the effects on agriculture of the incipient Little Ice Age
The Little Ice Age (LIA) was a period of regional cooling, particularly pronounced in the North Atlantic region. It was not a true ice age of global extent. The term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939. Ma ...
, natural calamities, crop failure and sudden epidemics. The ensuing breakdown of authority and people's livelihoods allowed rebel leaders, such as Li Zicheng, to challenge Ming authority.
The Ming dynasty fell around 1644 to the ethnically Manchu Qing dynasty, which would be the last dynasty of China. The Qing ruled from 1644 to 1912, with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. During its reign, the Qing dynasty adopted many of the outward features of Chinese culture in establishing its rule, but did not necessarily "assimilate", instead adopting a more universalist style of governance. The Manchus were formerly known as the Jurchen people, Jurchens. When Beijing was captured by Li Zicheng's peasant rebels in 1644, the Chongzhen Emperor, the last Ming emperor, committed suicide. The Manchus then allied with former Ming general Wu Sangui and seized control of Beijing, which became the new capital of the Qing dynasty. The Manchus adopted the Confucian norms of traditional Chinese government in their rule of China proper. Schoppa, the editor of ''The Columbia Guide to Modern Chinese History'' argues, "A date around 1780 as the beginning of modern China is thus closer to what we know today as historical 'reality'. It also allows us to have a better baseline to understand the precipitous decline of the Chinese polity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries."
Japanese shogunates
The Sengoku period that began around 1467 and lasted around a century consisted of several continually "warring states".
Following contact with the Portuguese Empire, Portuguese on Tanegashima Isle in 1543, the Japanese adopted several of the technologies and cultural practices of their visitors, whether in the military area (the arquebus, European-style cuirasses, European ships), religion (Christianity), Early Modern Art#Japanese art, decorative art, language (integration to Japanese of a Japanese language#Vocabulary, Western vocabulary) and culinary: the Portuguese introduced tempura and valuable refined sugar.
Central government was largely reestablished by Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi during the Azuchi–Momoyama period
The was the final phase of the in Japanese history from 1568 to 1600.
After the outbreak of the Ōnin War in 1467, the power of the Ashikaga Shogunate effectively collapsed, marking the start of the chaotic Sengoku period. In 1568, Oda Nobuna ...
. Although a start date of 1573 is often given, in more broad terms, the period begins with Oda Nobunaga's entry into Kyoto in 1568, when he led his army to the imperial capital in order to install Ashikaga Yoshiaki as the 15th, and ultimately final, shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate, and it lasts until the coming to power of Tokugawa Ieyasu after his victory over supporters of the Toyotomi clan at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. Tokugawa received the title of ''shōgun'' in 1603, establishing the Tokugawa shogunate.
The Edo period from 1600 to 1868 characterized early modern Japan. The Tokugawa shogunate was a feudalist regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the ''shōguns'' of the Tokugawa clan. The period gets its name from the capital city, Edo, now called Tokyo. The Tokugawa shogunate ruled from Edo Castle from 1603 until 1868, when it was abolished during the Meiji Restoration in the late Edo period (often called the Late Tokugawa shogunate).
Society in the Japanese "Tokugawa shogunate, Tokugawa period" (Edo society), unlike the shogunates before it, was based on the strict class hierarchy originally established by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The ''daimyōs'' (feudal lords) were at the top, followed by the warrior-caste of samurai, with the farmers, artisans, and merchant, traders ranking below. The country was strictly closed to foreigners with few exceptions with the ''Sakoku'' policy. Literacy among the Japanese people rose in the two centuries of isolation.
In some parts of the country, particularly smaller regions, ''daimyōs'' and samurai were more or less identical, since ''daimyōs'' might be trained as samurai, and samurai might act as local lords. Otherwise, the largely inflexible nature of this social stratification system unleashed disruptive forces over time. Taxes on the peasantry were set at fixed amounts which did not account for inflation or other changes in monetary value. As a result, the tax revenues collected by the samurai landowners were worth less and less over time. This often led to numerous confrontations between noble but impoverished samurai and well-to-do peasants. None, however, proved compelling enough to seriously challenge the established order until the arrival of foreign powers.
Korean dynasty
In 1392, General Taejo of Joseon, Yi Seong-gye established the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910) with a largely bloodless coup. Yi Seong-gye moved the capital of Korea to the location of modern-day Seoul. The dynasty was heavily influenced by Confucianism, which also played a large role to shaping Korea's strong cultural identity. Sejong the Great of Joseon, King Sejong the Great (1418–1450), one of the only two kings in Korea's history to earn the title of great in their posthumous titles, reclaimed Korean territory to the north and created the Hangul, Korean alphabet. During the end of the 16th century, Korea was invaded twice by Japan, first in 1592 and again in 1597. Japan failed both times due to Admiral Yi Sun-sin, Korea's revered naval genius, who lead the Korean Navy using advanced metal clad ships called turtle ships. Because the ships were armed with cannons, Admiral Yi's navy was able to demolish the Japanese invading fleets, destroying hundreds of ships in Japan's second invasion. During the 17th century, Korea was invaded again, this time by Manchurians, who would later take over China as the Qing Dynasty. In 1637, King Injo of Joseon, Injo was forced to surrender to the Qing forces, and was ordered to send princesses as concubines to the Qing Prince Dorgon. After invasions from Manchuria, Joseon enjoyed nearly 200 years of peace. However, whatever power the kingdom recovered during its isolation further waned as the 18th century came to a close, and Korea was faced with internal strife, power struggles, international pressure and rebellions at home. The Joseon dynasty declined rapidly in the late 19th century.South Asia
Indian empires
On the Indian subcontinent, the Lodi dynasty ruled over the Delhi Sultanate during its last phase. The dynasty founded by Bahlul Lodi ruled from 1451 to 1526. The dynasty's last ruler, Ibrahim Lodhi, was defeated and killed by Babur in the first Battle of Panipat (1526), Battle of Panipat. The Vijayanagara Empire was based in the Deccan Plateau, but its power was diminished after a major military defeat in 1565 by the Deccan sultanates. The empire is named after its capital city of Vijayanagara. The rise of the Mughal Empire is usually dated from 1526, around the end of the Middle Ages. It was an Islamic state, Islamic Persianate imperial power that ruled most of the area as Hindustan by the late 17th and the early 18th centuries. The empire dominated South Asia, South and Southwestern Asia, becoming the biggest global economy and manufacturing power, with a nominal GDP that valued a quarter of world GDP, superior than the combination of Europe's GDP. The "classic period" ended with the death of Mughal Empire, Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, although the dynasty continued for another 150 years. During this period, the Empire was marked by a highly centralized administration connecting the different regions. All the significant monuments of the Mughals, their most visible legacy, date to this period which was characterised by the expansion of Persian cultural influence in the Indian subcontinent, with brilliant literary, artistic, and architectural results. The Maratha Empire was located in the south west of present-day India and expanded greatly under the rule of the Peshwas, the prime ministers of the Maratha empire. In 1761, the Maratha army lost the Third Battle of Panipat which halted imperial expansion and the empire was then divided into a confederacy of Maratha states.British and Dutch colonization
The development of New Imperialism saw the conquest of nearly all eastern hemisphere territories by colonial powers. The Company rule in India, commercial colonization of India commenced in 1757, after the Battle of Plassey, when the Nawab of Bengal surrendered his dominions to the British East India Company, in 1765, when the company was granted the ''diwani'', or the right to collect revenue, in Bengal and Bihar, or in 1772, when the company established a capital in Calcutta, appointed its first Governor-General of India, Governor-General, Warren Hastings, and became directly involved in governance. The Maratha Empire, Maratha states, following the Anglo-Maratha Wars (disambiguation), Anglo-Maratha wars, eventually lost to the British East India Company in 1818 with the Third Anglo-Maratha War. The rule lasted until 1858, when, after the Indian rebellion of 1857 and consequent of the Government of India Act 1858, the India Office, British government assumed the task of directly administering India in the new British Raj. In 1819, Stamford Raffles established Singapore as a key trading post for Britain in their rivalry with the Dutch. However, their rivalry cooled in 1824 when an Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, Anglo-Dutch treaty demarcated their respective interests in Southeast Asia. From the 1850s onwards, the pace of colonization shifted to a significantly higher gear. The Dutch East India Company (1800) and East India Company, British East India Company (1858) were dissolved by their respective governments, who took over the direct administration of the colonies. Only Thailand was never colonized by a European power, although, Thailand itself was also greatly affected by the power politics of the Western powers. Colonial rule had a profound effect on Southeast Asia. While the colonial powers profited much from the region's vast resources and large market, colonial rule did develop the region to a varying extent. Commercial agriculture, mining and an export based economy developed rapidly during this period.Southeast Asia
At the start of the modern era, the Spice Route between India and China crossed Majapahit, an archipelagic empire based on the island of Java (island), Java. It was the last of the major Hindu empires of Maritime Southeast Asia and is considered one of the greatest states in Indonesian history.M.C. Ricklefs, ''A History of Modern Indonesia Since 1300'', 2nd ed. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991. page 19 Its influence extended to states in Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, Borneo and eastern Indonesia, but the effectiveness of their exact influence is the subject of debate. Majapahit found itself unable to control the rising power of the Sultanate of Malacca, which grew to stretch from Muslim Malay settlements of Phuket, Satun and Pattani (bordering Ayutthaya) in the north to Sumatra in the southwest. The Portuguese invaded its capital in 1511 and in 1528 the Sultanate of Johor was established by a Malaccan prince to succeed Malacca.Middle East and North Africa
Ottoman Empire
During the early modern era, the Ottoman Empire enjoyed an growth of the Ottoman Empire, expansion and consolidation of power, leading to a ''Pax Ottomana''. This was perhaps the golden age of the empire. The Ottomans expanded southwest into North Africa while battling with the re-emergent Persian Shi'a Safavid Empire to the east.
North Africa
In the Ottoman sphere, the Turks seized Egypt in 1517 and established the regencies of Ottoman Algeria, Algeria, Ottoman Tunisia, Tunisia, and Ottoman Tripolitania, Tripolitania (between 1519 and 1551), Morocco remaining an independent Arabized Berber state under the Saadi Sultanate, Sharifan dynasty.Safavid Iran
The Safavid Empire was a great Shia Persianate society, Persianate empire after the Islamic conquest of Persia and established of Islam, marking an important point in the history of Islam in the east. The Safavid dynasty was founded about 1501. From their base in Ardabil, the Safavids established control over all of Persia and reasserted the Iranian identity of the region, thus becoming the first native dynasty since the Sassanids to establish a unified Iranian state. Problematic for the Safavids was the powerful Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans, a Sunni dynasty, fought several campaigns against the Safavids. What fueled the growth of Safavid economy was its position between the burgeoning civilizations of Europe to its west and Islamic Central Asia to its east and north. The Silk Road, which led from Europe to East Asia, revived in the 16th century. Leaders also supported direct sea trade with Europe, particularly England and The Netherlands, which sought Persian carpet, silk, and textiles. Other exports were horses, goat hair, pearls, and an inedible bitter almond hadam-talka used as a spice in India. The main imports were spice, textiles (woolens from Europe, cotton from Gujarat), metals, coffee, and sugar. Despite their demise in 1722, the Safavids left their mark by establishing and spreading Shi'a Islam in major parts of the Caucasus and West Asia.Uzbeks and Afghan Pashtuns
In the 16th to early 18th centuries, Central Asia was under the rule of Uzbeks, and the far eastern portions were ruled by the local Pashtun people, Pashtuns. Between the 15th and 16th centuries, various nomadic tribes arrived from the steppes, including the Kipchaks, Naimans, Kangly, Khongirad, and Manghuds. These groups were led by Muhammad Shaybani, who was the Khan (title), Khan of the Uzbeks. The lineage of the Afghan (name), Afghan Pashtuns stretches back to the Hotaki dynasty.Afghanistan: History, ''U.S. Department of State'' (retrieved 10 October 2006). Following Muslim Arab and Turkic conquests, Pashtun ''Ghazw, ghazis'' (warriors for the faith) invaded and conquered much of northern India during the Lodhi dynasty and Suri dynasty. Pashtun forces also invaded Persia, and the opposing forces were defeated in the Battle of Gulnabad. The Pashtuns later formed the Durrani Empire.
Europe
Many major events caused Europe to change around the start of the 16th century, starting with the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the fall of Muslim Spain and the discovery of the Americas in 1492, and Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation in 1517. In England the modern period is often dated to the start of the Tudor period with the victory of Henry VII of England, Henry VII over Richard III of England, Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. Early modern European history is usually seen to span from the start of the 15th century, through the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries, until the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century.
The early modern period is taken to end with the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and the Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire at the Congress of Vienna. At the end of the early modern period, the Second British Empire, British and Russian Empire, Russian empires had emerged as world powers from the multipolar contest of colonial empires, while the three great Asian empires of the early modern period, stagnation of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Turkey, Mughal Empire#Decline, Mughal India and Qing China#Reigns of the Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors, Qing China, all entered a period of stagnation or decline.
Renaissance vs. early modern period
The expression "early modern" is at times used as a substitute for the term Renaissance. However, "Renaissance" is properly used in relation to a diverse series of cultural developments that occurred over several hundred years in many different parts of Europe—especially central and northern Italy—and it spans the transition from late medieval civilization to the opening of the early modern period. In the visual arts and architecture, the term "early modern" is not a common designation as the Renaissance period is clearly distinct from what came later. Only in the study of literature is the early modern period a standard designation (early modern literature). European music of the period is generally divided between Renaissance music, Renaissance and Baroque music, Baroque. Similarly, philosophy is divided between Renaissance philosophy and the Enlightenment. In other fields, there is far more continuity through the period such as gunpowder warfare, warfare and History of science, science.Gunpowder and firearms
When gunpowder was introduced to Europe, it was immediately used almost exclusively in weapons and explosives for warfare. Though it was invented in China, gunpowder arrived in Europe already formulated for military use and European countries took advantage of it and were the first to create the classic firearms. The advances made in gunpowder and firearms was directly tied to the decline in the use of plate armor because of the inability of the armor to protect one from bullets. The musket was able to penetrate all forms of armor available at the time, making armor obsolete, and as a consequence the heavy musket as well. Although there is relatively little to no difference in design between arquebus and musket except in size and strength, it was the term ''musket'' which remained in use up into the 1800s.European kingdoms and movements
In the early modern period, the Holy Roman Empire was a union of territories in Central Europe under a Holy Roman Emperor the first of which was Otto I. The last was Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II, who abdication, abdicated and dissolved the Empire in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. Despite its name, for much of its history the Empire did not include Rome within its borders. The Renaissance was a cultural movement that began in the 14th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historic era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not uniform across Europe, this is a general use of the term. As a cultural movement, it encompassed a rebellion of learning based on Classical antiquity, classical sources, the development of linear perspective in painting, and gradual but widespread educational reform.Notable individuals
Johannes Gutenberg is credited as the first European to use movable type printing, around 1439, and as the global inventor of the mechanical printing press. Nicolaus Copernicus formulated a comprehensive heliocentrism, heliocentric cosmology (1543), which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe. His book, ''De revolutionibus orbium coelestium'' (''On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres'') began modern astronomy and sparked the Scientific Revolution. Another notable individual was Machiavelli, an Italian political philosopher, considered a founder of modern political science. Machiavelli is most famous for a short political treatise, The Prince, a work of Political realism, realist political theory. The Swiss Paracelsus (1493–1541) is associated with a medical revolution while the Anglo-Irish Robert Boyle was one of the founders of modern chemistry. In visual arts, notable representatives included the "three giants of the High Renaissance", namely Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael, Albrecht Dürer (often considered the greatest artist of Northern Renaissance), Titian from the Venetian painting, Venetian school, Peter Paul Rubens of the Flemish Baroque traditions. Famous composers included Guillaume Du Fay, Heinrich Isaac, Josquin des Prez, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Claudio Monteverdi, Jean-Baptiste Lully.
Among the notable royalty of the time was Charles the Bold (1433–1477), the last House of Valois, Valois Duke of Burgundy, known as ''Charles the Bold (or Rash)'' to his enemies, His early death was a pivotal moment in European history. Charles has often been regarded as the last representative of the feudal spirit, although in administrative affairs, he introduced remarkable modernizing innovations. Upon his death, Charles left an unmarried nineteen-year-old daughter, Mary of Burgundy, as his heir. Her marriage would have enormous implications for the political balance of Europe. Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor secured the match for his son, the future Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, with the aid of Mary's stepmother, Margaret. In 1477, the territory of the Duchy of Burgundy was annexed by France. In the same year, Mary married Maximilian, Archduke of Austria. A conflict between the Burgundian side (Maximilian brought with himself almost no resources from the Empire) and France ensued, culminating in the Treaty of Senlis(1493) which gave the majority of Burgundian inheritance to the Habsburg (Mary already died in 1482). The rise of the Habsburg dynasty was a prime factor in the spreading of the Renaissance.
In Central Europe, King Matthias Corvinus (1443–1490), a notable nation builder, conqueror (Hungary in his time was the most powerful in Central Europe) and patron, was the first who introduced the Renaissance outside of Italy. In military area, he introduced the Black Army of Hungary, Black Army, one of the first standing armies in Europe and a remarkably modern force.
Some noblemen from the generation that lived during this period have been attributed the moniker "the last knight", with the most notable being the above mentioned Maximilian I (1459–1519), Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard, Chevalier de Bayard(1476–1524), Franz von Sickingen(1481–1523) and Götz von Berlichingen(1480–1562). Maximilian (although Claude Michaud opines that he could claim "last knight" status by virtue of being the last medieval epic poet.) was actually a chief modernizing force of the time (whose reform initiatives led to Europe-wide revolutions in the areas of warfare and communications, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor#Legacy, among others), who broke the back of the knight class (causing many to become robber barons) and had personal conflicts with the three other men on the matter of the knight's status.
Claude de Lorraine was the first Duke of Guise, from 1528 to his death. Claude distinguished himself at the battle of Marignano (1515), and was long in recovering from the twenty-two wounds he received in the battle. In 1521, he fought at Fuenterrabia, and Louise of Savoy ascribed the capture of the place to his efforts. In 1523 he became governor of Champagne (province), Champagne and Burgundy (region), Burgundy, after defeating at Neufchâteau, Vosges, Neufchâteau the Holy Roman Empire, imperial troops who had invaded this province. In 1525 he destroyed the Anabaptist German Peasants' War, peasant army, which was overrunning Lorraine (province), Lorraine, at Lupstein, near Saverne (Zabern). On the return of Francis I from captivity in 1528, Claude was made Duke of Guise in the peerage of France, though up to this time only princes of the royal house had held the title of duke and peer of France. The Guises, as cadets of the sovereign house of Lorraine and descendants of the House of Valois-Anjou, house of Anjou, claimed precedence of the House of Bourbon, Bourbon princes of Prince of Condé, Condé and Prince of Conti, Conti.
The Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba, 3rd Duke of Alba was a nobleman of importance in the early modern period, nicknamed the "Iron Duke" by the Protestants of the Low Countries because of his harsh rule and cruelty. Tales of atrocities committed during his military operations in Flanders became part of Dutch and English folklore, forming a central component of the Spanish Black Legend.
In England, Henry VIII of England, Henry VIII was the King of England and a significant figure in the history of the English monarchy. Although in the greater part of his reign he brutally suppressed the influence of the Protestant Reformation in England (see also William Tyndale, ''Martyrdom of William Tyndale''.) a movement having some roots with John Wycliffe in the 14th century, he is more popularly known for his political struggles with Roman Catholic Church, Rome. These struggles ultimately led to the separation of the Church of England from papal authority, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and establishing himself as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. Though Henry reportedly became a Protestant on his death-bed, he advocated Catholic ceremony and doctrine throughout his life. Royal support for the English Reformation began with his heirs, the devout Edward VI of England, Edward VI and the renowned Elizabeth I of England, Elizabeth I, whilst daughter Mary I of England, Mary I temporarily reinstated papal authority over England. Henry also oversaw the legal union of England and Wales with the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542. He is also noted for his Wives of Henry VIII, six wives, two of whom were Decapitation, beheaded.
Christians and Christendom
Christianity was challenged at the beginning of the modern period with the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and later by various movements to reform the church (including Lutheran, Zwinglian, and Calvinist), followed by the Counter Reformation.End of the Crusades and unity
The Hussite Wars, Hussite Crusades involved the military actions against and amongst the followers of Jan Hus in Bohemia#Hussite Bohemia, Bohemia ending ultimately with the Battle of Grotniki. Also known as the Hussite Wars, they were arguably the first European war in which hand-held gunpowder weapons such as muskets made a decisive contribution. The Taborite faction of the Hussite warriors were basically infantry, and their many defeats of larger armies with heavily armored knights helped effect the infantry revolution. In totality, the Hussite Crusades were inconclusive.
The last crusade, the ''Crusade of 1456'', was organized to counter the expanding Ottoman Empire and lift the Siege of Belgrade (1456), Siege of Belgrade, and was led by John Hunyadi and Giovanni da Capistrano. The siege eventually escalated into a major battle, during which Hunyadi led a sudden counterattack that overran the Turkish camp, ultimately compelling the wounded Sultan Mehmet II to lift the siege and retreat. The siege of Belgrade has been characterized as having "decided the fate of Christendom". The noon bell ordered by Pope Callixtus III commemorates the victory throughout the Christian world to this day.
Nearly a hundred years later, the Peace of Augsburg officially ended the idea that all Christians could be united under one church. The principle of ''cuius regio, eius religio'' ("whose the region is, [it shall have] his religion") established the religious, political and geographic divisions of Christianity, and this was established in international law with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, which legally ended the concept of a single Christian hegemony, i.e. the "One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church" of the Nicene Creed. Each government determined the religion of their own state. Christians living in states where their denomination was ''not'' the established church were guaranteed the right to practice their faith in public during allotted hours and in private at their will. With the Treaty of Westphalia, the European wars of religion, Wars of Religion came to an end, and in the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 the concept of the national sovereignty, sovereign national state was born. The ''Corpus Christianum'' has since existed with the modern idea of a tolerant and diverse society consisting of many different communities.
Inquisitions and Reformations
The modern Inquisition refers to any one of several institutions charged with trying and convicting Christian heresy, heretics (or other offenders against canon law) within the Catholic Church. In the modern era, the first manifestation was the Spanish Inquisition of 1478 to 1834. The Inquisition prosecuted individuals accused of a wide array of crimes related to heresy, including Magic (paranormal), sorcery, blasphemy, Judaizing and witchcraft, as well for censorship of printed literature. Because of its objective—combating heresy—the Inquisition had jurisdiction only over baptized members of the Church (which, however, encompassed the vast majority of the population in Catholic countries). Secular courts could still try non-Christians for blasphemy (most of the witch trials went through secular courts). The Protestant Reformation and rise of modernity in the early 16th century entailed the start of a series of changes in the ''Corpus Christianum''. Martin Luther challenged the Catholic Church with his Ninety-five Theses, generally accepted as the beginning of the Reformation, a Christian reform movement in Europe, though precursors such as Jan Hus predate him. The Protestant movement of the 16th century occurred under the protection of the Electorate of Saxony, an independent hereditary Prince-elector, electorate of the Holy Roman Empire. The Elector Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, Frederick III established a Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, university at Wittenberg in 1502. The Augustinian monk Martin Luther became professor of philosophy there in 1508. At the same time, he became one of the preachers at the castle church of Wittenberg. On 31 October 1517, Luther posted his ''Ninety-five Theses'' on the door of the All Saints' Church, Wittenberg, All Saints' Church, which served as a notice board for university-related announcements. These were points for debate that criticized the Church and the Pope. The most controversial points centered on the practice of selling indulgences (especially by Johann Tetzel) and the Church's policy on purgatory. The reform movement soon split along certain doctrinal lines. Religious disagreements between various leading figures led to the emergence of rival Protestant churches. The most important Christian denomination, denominations to emerge directly from the Reformation were the Lutherans, and the Reformed tradition, Reformed/Calvinists/Presbyterians. The process of reform had decidedly different causes and effects in other countries. In England, where it gave rise to Anglicanism, the period became known as the English Reformation. Subsequent Protestant denominations generally trace their roots back to the initial reforming movements. The Diet of Worms in 1521, presided by Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, declared Martin Luther a heretic and an outlaw (although Charles V was more preoccupied with maintaining his vast empire than with arresting Luther). As a result of Charles V's distractions in East Europe and in Spain, he agreed through the Diet of Speyer (1526), Diet of Speyer in 1526 to allow German princes to effectively decide themselves whether to enforce the Edict of Worms or not, for the time being. After returning to the empire, Charles V attended the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 to order all Protestants in the empire to revert to Catholicism. In response, the Protestant territories in and around Germany formed the Schmalkaldic League to fight against the Catholic Holy Roman Empire. Charles V left again to handle the advance of the Ottoman Turks. He returned in 1547 to launch a military campaign against the Schmalkaldic League and to issue an imperial law requiring all Protestants to return to Catholic practices (with a few superficial concessions to Protestant practices). Warfare ended when Charles V relented in the Peace of Passau (1552) and in the Peace of Augsburg (1555), which formalized the law that the rulers of a land decide its religion. Of the late Inquisitions in the modern era, there were two different manifestations: # the Portuguese Inquisition (1536–1821) # the Roman Inquisition (1542–1860) This Portuguese inquisition was a local analogue of the more famous Spanish Inquisition. The Roman Inquisition covered most of the Italian peninsula as well as Malta and also existed in isolated pockets of papal jurisdiction in other parts of Europe, including Avignon. The Catholic Reformation began in 1545 when the Council of Trent was called in reaction to the ''Protestant Rebellion''. The idea was to reform the state of worldliness and disarray that had befallen some of the Catholic clergy, clergy of the Church, while reaffirming the spiritual authority of the Catholic Church and its position as the sole true Church of Christ on Earth. The effort sought to prevent further damage to the Church and her faithful at the hands of the newly formed Protestant denominations.Tsardom of Russia
In development of the Third Rome ideas, the Grand Duke Ivan IV (the "Awesome" or "the Terrible") was officially crowned the first Tsar ("Caesar (title), Caesar") of Russia in 1547. The Tsar promulgated a new code of laws (Sudebnik of 1550), established the first Russian feudal representative body (Zemsky Sobor) and introduced local self-management into the rural regions. During his long reign, Ivan IV nearly doubled the already large Russian territory by annexing the three Tatar khanates (parts of disintegrated Golden Horde): Khanate of Kazan, Kazan and Astrakhan Khanate, Astrakhan along the Volga River, and Sibirean Khanate in South Western Siberia. Thus by the end of the 16th century Russia was transformed into a multiethnic, multiconfessional and transcontinental state. Russia experienced territorial growth through the 17th century, which was the age of Cossacks. Cossacks were warriors organized into military communities, resembling pirates and pioneers of the New World. The native land of the Cossacks is defined by a line of Russian/Ruthenian town-fortresses located on the border with the Eurasian Steppe, steppe and stretching from the middle Volga to Ryazan and Tula, then breaking abruptly to the south and extending to the Dnieper via Pereyaslavl. This area was settled by a population of free people practicing various trades and crafts.
In 1648, the peasants of Ukraine joined the Zaporozhian Cossacks in rebellion against Poland–Lithuania during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, because of the social and religious oppression they suffered under Polish rule. In 1654 the Ukrainian leader, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, offered to place Ukraine under the protection of the Russian Tsar, Aleksey I. Aleksey's acceptance of this offer led to another Russo-Polish War (1654–1667). Finally, Ukraine was split along the river Dnieper, leaving the western part (or Right-bank Ukraine) under Polish rule and eastern part (Left-bank Ukraine and Kiev) under Russian. Later, in 1670–71 the Don Cossacks led by Stenka Razin initiated a major uprising in the Volga region, but the Tsar's troops were successful in defeating the rebels. In the east, the rapid Russian exploration and colonisation of the huge territories of Siberia was led mostly by Cossacks hunting for valuable furs and ivory. Russian explorers pushed eastward primarily along the Siberian river routes, and by the mid-17th century there were Russian settlements in the Eastern Siberia, on the Chukchi Peninsula, along the Amur River, and on the Pacific coast. In 1648 the Bering Strait between Asia and North America was passed for the first time by Fedot Popov and Semyon Dezhnyov.
Discovery and trade
The Age of Discovery was a period from the early 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century, during which European ships traveled around the world to search for new trading routes and partners to feed burgeoning capitalism in Europe. They also were in search of trading goods such as gold, silver and spices. In the process, Europeans encountered peoples and mapped lands previously unknown to them. This factor in the early European modern period was a globalizing
Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...
character; the 'discovery' of the Americas and the rise of sustained contacts between previously isolated parts of the globe was an important historical event.
The search for new routes was based on the fact that the Silk Road was controlled by the Ottoman Empire, which was an impediment to European commercial interests, and other Eastern trade routes were not available to the Europeans due to Muslim control. The ability to outflank the Muslim states of North Africa was seen as crucial to European survival. At the same time, the Iberians learnt much from their Arab neighbors. The northwestern region of Eurasia has a very long coastline, and has arguably been more influenced by its ''maritime history'' than any other continent. Europe is uniquely situated between several navigable seas, and intersected by navigable rivers running into them in a way that greatly facilitated the influence of maritime traffic and commerce. In the maritime history of Europe, the carrack and caravel both incorporated the lateen sail that made ships far more maneuverable. By translating the Arab versions of lost History of geography#Greco-Roman world, ancient Greek geographical works into Latin, European navigators acquired a deeper knowledge of the shape of Africa and Asia.
Mercantile capitalism
Mercantilism was the dominant school of economic thought throughout the early modern period (from the 16th to the 18th century). This led to some of the first instances of significant government intervention and control over the economy, and it was during this period that much of the modern capitalist system was established. Internationally, mercantilism encouraged the many European wars of the period and fueled European imperialism. Belief in mercantilism began to fade in the late 18th century, as the arguments of Adam Smith and the other classical economists won out. The Commercial Revolution was a period of economic expansion, colonialism, and mercantilism that lasted from approximately the 16th century until the early 18th century. Beginning with the Crusades, Europeans rediscovered spices, silks, and other commodities rare in Europe. This development created a new desire for trade, which expanded in the second half of the Middle Ages. European nations, through Age of Discovery, voyages of discovery, were looking for new trade routes in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which allowed the European powers to build vast, new international trade networks. Nations also sought new sources of wealth. To deal with this new-found wealth, new economic theories and practices were created. Because of competing national interest, nations had the desire for increased world power through their colonial empires. The Commercial Revolution is marked by an increase in general commerce, and in the growth of non-manufacturing pursuits, such as banking, insurance, and investing.= Trade and the new economy
= In theOld World
The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by the ...
, the most desired trading goods were gold, silver, and spices. Western Europeans used the compass, new sailing ship technologies, new maps, and advances in astronomy to seek a viable trade route to Asia for valuable spices that Mediterranean powers could not contest.
In terms of shipping advances, the most important developments were the creation of the carrack and caravel designs in Portugal. These vessels evolved from post-classical age, medieval European designs from the North Sea and both the Christian and Islamic Mediterranean. They were the first ships that could leave the relatively placid and calm Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, Baltic Sea, Baltic or North Sea and sail safely on the open Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic. When the carrack and then the caravel were developed in Iberian Peninsula, Iberia, European thoughts returned to the fabled East. These explorations have a number of causes. Monetarists believe the main reason the Age of Exploration began was because of a severe shortage of bullion in Europe. The European economy was dependent on gold and silver currency, but low domestic supplies had plunged much of Europe into a recession. Another factor was the centuries-long conflict between the Iberians and the Muslims to the south.
= Piracy's Golden Age
= The Golden Age of Piracy is a designation given to one or more outbursts of piracy in the early modern period, spanning from the mid-17th century to the mid-18th century. The Golden Age of Piracy#The buccaneering period, 1650–1680, buccaneering period covers approximately the late 17th century. The period is characterized by Anglo-French seamen based on Jamaica and Tortuga attacking Spanish colonies and shipping in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. A sailing route known as the Pirate Round was followed by certain Anglo-American pirates at the turn of the 18th century, associated with long-distance voyages from Bermuda and the Americas to rob Muslim and East India Company targets in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. The post-Spanish Succession period extending into the early 18th century, when Anglo-American sailors and privateers left unemployed by the end of the War of the Spanish Succession turned en masse to piracy in the Caribbean, the American eastern seaboard, the West African coast, and the Indian Ocean.European states and politics
The 15th to 18th century period is marked by the first European colonies, the rise of strong centralized governments, and the beginnings of recognizable European nation states that are the direct antecedents of today's states. Although the Renaissance included revolutions in many intellectual pursuits, as well as social and political upheaval, it is perhaps best known for European artistic developments and the contributions of such polymaths as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, who inspired the term "Polymath, Renaissance man".
During the Baroque period the Thirty Years' War in Central Europe decimated the population by up to 20%. In 1648, the Peace of Westphalia
The Peace of Westphalia (german: Westfälischer Friede, ) is the collective name for two peace treaties signed in October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster. They ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and brought pea ...
, consisting of the Peace treaty, treaties of Osnabrück and Münster, signed on May 15 and October 24, respectively, ended several wars in Europe and established the beginning of sovereign states. The treaties involved the Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand III (Habsburg), the Kingdoms of Spain, France and Sweden, the Dutch Republic, Netherlands and their respective allies among the Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, princes and the Free Imperial City, Republican Imperial States of the Holy Roman Empire.
The Peace of Westphalia resulted from the first modern Diplomacy, diplomatic congress. Until 1806, the regulations became part of the constitutional laws of the Holy Roman Empire. The Treaty of the Pyrenees, signed in 1659, ended the war between France and Spain and is often considered part of the overall accord.
= Absolutism
= The Age of Absolutism describes the monarchical power that was unrestrained by any other institutions, such as churches, legislatures, or social elites of the European monarchs during the transition from feudalism to capitalism. Monarchs described as absolute can especially be found in the 17th century through the 19th century. Nations that adopted Absolutism include France, Prussia, and Russia. Nobles tended to trade privileges for allegiance throughout the eighteenth century, so that the interests of the nobility aligned with that of the crown. Absolutism is characterized by the ending of feudal partitioning, consolidation of power with the monarch, rise of Political power, state power, unification of the state laws, drastic increase in tax revenue collected by the monarch, and a decrease in the influence of nobility.= French power
= For much of the reign of Louis XIV, who was known as the ''Sun King'' (French: ''le Roi Soleil''), France stood as the leading power in Europe, engaging in three major wars—the Franco-Dutch War, the Nine Years War, War of the League of Augsburg, and the War of the Spanish Succession—and two minor conflicts—the War of Devolution, and the War of the Reunions. Louis ruled according to the Divine Right of Kings, the theory that the King was crowned by God and accountable to him alone. Consequently, he has long been considered the archetypal Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch. Louis XIV continued the work of his predecessor to create a Centralized government, centralized state, governed from the capital to sweep away the remnants of feudalism that persisted in parts of France. He succeeded in breaking the power of the provincial nobility, much of which had risen in revolt during his minority called the Fronde, and forced many leading nobles to live with him in his lavish Palace of Versailles. Men who featured prominently in the political and military life of France during this period include Cardinal Mazarin, Mazarin, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne, Turenne, Vauban. French culture likewise flourished during this era, producing a number of figures of great renown, including Molière, Jean Racine, Racine, Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, Boileau, Jean de La Fontaine, La Fontaine, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Lully, Charles Le Brun, Le Brun, Hyacinthe Rigaud, Rigaud, Louis Le Vau, Jules Hardouin Mansart, Claude Perrault and André Le Nôtre, Le Nôtre.= Early English revolutions
= Before the Age of Revolution, the English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists. The first and second civil wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third war saw fighting between supporters of King Charles II and supporters of the Rump Parliament. The Civil War ended with the Parliamentary victory at the Battle of Worcester. The monopoly of the Church of England on Christian worship in England ended with the victors consolidating the established Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. Constitutionally, the wars established the precedent that an English monarch cannot govern without Parliament's consent. The English Restoration, or simply put as the Restoration, began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Commonwealth of England that followed the English Civil War. TheGlorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...
of 1688 establishes modern parliamentary democracy in England.
= International balance of power
= The War of the Spanish Succession was a war fought between 1701 and 1714, in which several European powers combined to stop a possible unification of the Kingdoms of Spain and France under a single Bourbon monarch, upsetting the European Balance of power in international relations, balance of power. It was fought mostly in Europe, but it included Queen Anne's War in North America. The war was marked by the military leadership of notable generals like the Claude-Louis-Hector de Villars, duc de Villars, the Jacobite James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick-upon-Tweed, Duke of Berwick, the John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy. The Peace of Utrecht established after a series of individual peace treaty, peace treaties signed in the Dutch Republic, Dutch city of Utrecht (city), Utrecht concluded between various European states helped end the War of the Spanish Succession. The representatives who met were Louis XIV of France and Philip V of Spain on the one hand, and representatives of Queen Anne, Queen of Great Britain, Anne of Great Britain, the Duchy of Savoy, Duke of Savoy, and the Dutch Republic, United Provinces on the other. The treaty enregistered the defeat of French ambitions expressed in the wars of Louis XIV of France, Louis XIV and preserved the European system based on the Balance of power in international relations, balance of power. The Treaty of Utrecht marked the change from Spanish Empire, Spanish to Kingdom of Great Britain, British naval supremacy.Sub-Saharan Africa
TheSonghai Empire
The Songhai Empire (also transliterated as Songhay) was a state that dominated the western Sahel/Sudan in the 15th and 16th century. At its peak, it was one of the largest states in African history. The state is known by its historiographical ...
took control of the trans-Saharan trade at the beginning of the modern era. It seized Timbuktu in 1468 and Djenné, Jenne in 1473, building the regime on trade revenues and the cooperation of Muslim merchants. The empire eventually made Islam the official religion, built mosques, and brought Muslim scholars to Gao.Ira M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies, Cambridge 1988
Around the beginning of the modern era, the Benin Kingdom was an independent trading power in the southeastern coastline of West Africa, blocking the access of other inland nations to the coastal ports. Benin may have housed 100,000 inhabitants at its height, spreading over twenty-five square kilometres, enclosed by three concentric rings of earthworks. By the late 15th century Benin was in contact with Portugal. At its apogee in the 16th and 17th centuries, Benin encompassed parts of southeastern Yorubaland and the western Igbo people, Igbo.
In the Ethiopian Highlands, the Solomonic dynasty established itself in the 13th century. Claiming direct descent from the old Axumite royal house, the Solomonic ruled the region well into modern history. In the 16th century, Shewa and the rest of Ethiopian Empire, Abyssinia were Ethiopian-Adal War, conquered by the forces of Ahmed Gurey of the Adal Sultanate to the northwest. The conquest of the area by the Oromo migrations, Oromo ended in the contraction of both Adal and Abyssinia, changing regional dynamics for centuries to come.
The Ajuran Sultanate, Ajuran Empire, which was one of the largest and strongest empires in the Horn of Africa, began to decline in the 17th century, and several powerful successor states came to prominence. The Geledi Sultanate, established by Ibrahim Adeer, was a notable successor of the Ajuran Sultanate. The Sultanate reached its apex under the successive reigns of Sultan Yusuf Mahamud Ibrahim (reigned 1798 to 1848), who successfully consolidated Geledi power during the Bardera wars, and Sultan Ahmed Yusuf (Gobroon), Ahmed Yusuf, who forced regional powers such as the Omani Empire to pay tribute. The Majeerteen Sultanate was a Somali people, Somali Sultanate in the Horn of Africa. Ruled by Boqor, King Osman Mahamuud during its golden age, it controlled much of northern and central Somalia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The polity had all of the organs of an integrated modern state and maintained a robust trading network. Along with the Sultanate of Hobyo ruled by Sultan Yusuf Ali Kenadid, the Majeerteen Sultanate was eventually annexed into Italian Somaliland in the early 20th century, following the military Campaign of the Sultanates.
Americas
The term ''colonialism'' is normally used with reference to discontiguous overseas empires rather than contiguous land-based empires, European or otherwise. European colonisation during the 15th to 19th centuries resulted in the spread of Christianity to Sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, Australia and the Philippines.
Exploration and conquest of the Americas
Christopher Columbus came to the Americas in 1492. Subsequently, the major sea powers in Europe sent expeditions to the New World to build trade networks and colonies and to convert the native peoples to Christianity. Pope Alexander VI divided newly discovered lands outside Europe between Spain and Portugal along a north–south meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands (off the west coast of Africa). The division was never accepted by the rulers of England or France.Colonial Latin America
What is now called Latin America, a designation first used in the late 19th century, was claimed by Spain and Portugal. The Western Hemisphere, the New World, was divided between the two Iberian powers by the Treaty of Tordesillas in what until the late 16th-century, was an area that could be called "Ibero-America". Spain called its overseas empire there "The Indies", with Portugal calling its territory in South America Brazil, after the dyewood found there. Spain concentrated building its empire where there were large indigenous populations, "Indians", who could be compelled to work and large deposits of precious metals, mainly silver. BothNew Spain
New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...
(colonial Mexico) and Peru fit those criteria and the Spanish crown established viceroyalties to rule those two large areas. As Spanish settlements and the economy grew in size and complexity, the Spanish established viceroyalties in the eighteenth century during Bourbon reforms, administrative reforms Rio de la Plata (southeastern South America) and New Granada (northern South America).
Initially, Portuguese settlements (Brazil) in the coastal northeast were of lesser importance in the larger Portuguese overseas empire, where lucrative commerce and small settlements devoted to trade were established in coastal Africa, India and China. With sparse indigenous populations that could not be coerced to work and no known deposits of precious metals, Portugal sought a high-value, low-bulk export product and found it in sugarcane. Black African slave labour from Portugal's West African possessions was imported to do the grueling agricultural work. As the wealth of the Ibero-America increased, some Western European powers (Dutch, French, British, Danish) sought to duplicate the model in areas that the Iberians had not settled in numbers. They seized some Caribbean islands from the Spanish and transferred the model of sugar production on plantations with slave labour and settled in northern areas of North America in what are now the Eastern Seaboard of the United States and Canada.
Colonial North America
North America outside the zone of Spanish settlement was a contested area in the 17th century. Spain had founded small settlements in Florida and Georgia but nowhere near the size of those inNew Spain
New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...
or the Caribbean islands. France, The Netherlands, and Great Britain held several colonies in North America and the West Indies from the 17th century, 100 years after the Spanish and Portuguese established permanent colonies. The British colonies in North America were founded between 1607 (Virginia) and 1733 (Georgia). The Dutch explored the east coast of North America and began founding settlements in what they called New Netherland (now New York State.). France colonized what is now Eastern Canada, founding Quebec City in 1608. France's loss in the Seven Years' War resulted in the transfer of New France to Great Britain. The Thirteen Colonies, in lower British North America, rebelled against British rule in 1775, largely due to the taxation that Great Britain was imposing on the colonies. The British colonies in Canada remained loyal to the crown, and a provisional government formed by the Thirteen Colonies proclaimed their independence on July 4, 1776 and subsequently became the original 13 United States of America. With the 1783 Treaty of Paris ending the American Revolutionary War, Britain recognised the former Thirteen Colonies' independence.
Atlantic World
A recent development in early modern history is the creation of Atlantic World as a category. The term generally encompasses western Europe, West Africa, North and South and America and the Caribbean islands. It seeks to show both local and regional development and the connections between the various geographical regions.
Religion, science, philosophy, and education
Eastern philosophies
Concerning the history of Philosophy, development of Eastern philosophies, much of Eastern philosophy had been in an advanced state of development from study in the previous centuries. The various philosophy, philosophies include Indian philosophy, Chinese philosophy, Iranian philosophy, Japanese philosophy, and Korean philosophy.Muslim world
The Islamic Golden Age reached its peak in the High Middle Ages, stopped short by the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. The re-establishment of three major Muslim empires by the 16th century (the aforementioned Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Safavid Empire, Safavid andMughal
Mughal or Moghul may refer to:
Related to the Mughal Empire
* Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries
* Mughal dynasty
* Mughal emperors
* Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia
* Mughal architecture
* Mug ...
Empires) gave rise to a Muslim cultural revival. The Safavids Safavid conversion of Iran to Shia Islam, established Twelver Shi'a Islam as Iran's official religion, thus giving Iran a separate identity from its Sunni neighbors.
Protestant Reformation
The early modern period was initiated by the Protestant Reformation and the collapse of the unity of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, Western Church. The theology of Calvinism in particular has been argued as instrumental to the rise of capitalism. Max Weber has written a highly influential book on this called ''The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.''Counter-Reformation and Jesuits
The Counter-Reformation was a period of Roman Catholic Church, Catholic revival in response to the Protestant Reformation during the mid-16th to mid-17th centuries. The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort, involving ecclesiastical or structural reforms as well as a political dimension and spiritual movements. Such reforms included the foundation of seminaries for the proper training of priests in the spiritual life and the theological traditions of the Church, the reform of religious life by returning orders to their spiritual foundations and new spiritual movements focusing on the devotional life and a personal relationship with Christ, including the Spanish mystics and the French school of spirituality. It also involved political activities that included the Roman Inquisition. New religious orders were a fundamental part of this trend. Orders such as the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, Capuchins, Ursulines, Theatines, Discalced Carmelites, the Barnabites, and especially the Society of Jesus, Jesuits strengthened rural parishes, improved popular piety, helped to curb corruption within the church and set examples that would be a strong impetus for Catholic renewal.Scientific Revolution
The Great Divergence in scientific discovery, technological innovation, and economic development began in the early modern period as the pace of change in Western countries increased significantly compared to the rest of the world.
During the Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17 century, empiricism and modern science replaced older methods of studying nature – European research methods that mainly involved reading texts by ancient writers. In ancient times, natural philosophers made observations of nature and came up with explanations, but never conducted experiments to test those explanations, because creating an artificial situation was considered an invalid way to discover the rules of nature. The scientific method of testing hypotheses was first recorded in the 10th century by Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), inspiring Roger Bacon to begin experimenting in 13th century Europe. By the time of the Revolution, these methods resulted in accumulation of knowledge that overturned ideas inherited from Ancient Greece (primarily Aristotelian physics, which includes the modern domains of physics, chemistry, biology) through the Middle Ages and Islamic scholars. Major changes of the Scientific Revolution and the 18th century included:
* The ancient geocentric model of the solar system (the planets circle the Earth) was replaced by the heliocentric model (Earth and other planets circle the Sun). Known as the Copernican Revolution, the 1543 publication of Nicolaus Copernicus's ''De revolutionibus orbium coelestium'' (''On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres'', which was influenced by Mu'ayyad al-Din al-Urdi and was based on detailed astronomical observations) is often used to mark the beginning of the Scientific Revolution. Heliocentrism was resisted by the Catholic Church because it contradicted the Bible; the Catholic Inquisition imprisoned Galileo Galilei (sometimes called the "father of modern science" for his many empirical discoveries) for promoting this theory.
* Armed with detailed observations from Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler found the idea that the planets moved in ellipses rather than on perfect celestial spheres, publishing Kepler's laws of planetary motion. The commonly held idea that the fixed stars are mounted on a large sphere was replaced by the idea that they are distant suns. Astrology and astronomy began to separate into different disciplines, with only astronomy using scientific methods. Telescope technology improved tremendously as did the History of optics, study of optics.
* Aristotelian physics#Natural motion, Aristotle's laws of motion were demonstrated to be incorrect, and were replaced by Newton's laws of motion and Newton's law of universal gravitation. The 1687 publication of Isaac Newton's 1687 ''Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Principia'' is often used to mark the end of the Scientific Revolution.
* A revival of atomism (denied by Aristotle) and corpuscularianism began to undermine the classical elements. Both 8th century Islamic experimenter Jabir ibn Hayyan and 17th century Christian experimenter Robert Boyle have been described as the founders of modern chemistry, both worked as alchemists before the fields were clearly separated. Boyle argued for corpuscularism in the 1661 book ''The Sceptical Chymist'', and discovered Boyle's Law of gases. Phlogiston theory was refuted by empirical discovery of conservation of mass, among other discoveries bring the chemical revolution. The discovery of modern chemical elements would not begin until the 19th century in the late modern period, followed by experimental confirmation of atoms.
* Finally overcoming the difficulties human corpses to perform dissections, the anatomical descriptions of the 2nd century Galen were updated by the 1543 publication of ''De humani corporis fabrica'' by Andreas Vesalius, considered a foundational text of modern medicine and History of anatomy#Medieval to Early Modern Anatomy, early modern anatomy. The 1628 work ''De Motu Cordis'' by William Harvey was a major advance in the understanding of the circulatory system.
* The field of microbiology began with the invention of the microscope and the first observations of microorganisms, famously by Anton van Leeuwenhoek in the 1670s and probably also by Athanasius Kircher in the 1640s. Though microorganisms were (correctly) proposed as the cause of infectious diseases as soon as they were discovered, this theory was generally dismissed. Though scientific investigation undermined humorism in medicine, miasma theory remained dominant throughout the early modern period. The germ theory of disease was not widely accepted until the 1880s, in the late modern period.
* Modern scientific dentistry was founded by Pierre Fauchard.
* The smallpox vaccine was invented in the 1770s and popularized by Edward Jenner in the 1790s, though it was unclear at the time how it worked.
* Carl Linnaeus published the first modern taxonomy (biology), taxonomy in 1735, replacing Aristotle's Great Chain of Being. Binomial nomenclature was used in publications by Gaspard Bauhin as early as 1622, and by Linnaeus in 1753.
* The ancient theory of spontaneous generation remained dominant throughout the early modern period, but the history of evolutionary thought includes some who questioned the strictest form of this dogma. The idea of partial common descent was famously promoted by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon. Evolution was not fully articulated and accepted until the 19th century.
* Modern geology began to take shape mainly in the 18th and 19th centuries. Early on, Nicolas Steno proposed the law of superposition in 1669, and various writers in the history of geology began to question the notion derived from the Christian Bible that the Earth was only about 6,000 years old and relatively unchanged over time. Steno and James Hutton are often considered founders of the modern field. The study of fossils and rock types became systematic.
* Early developments in the history of electromagnetism during this era include gradual teasing out of the relationships between electricity, magnetism, and lightning; development of the electrostatic generator and Leyden jar for storage; and the discoveries of ferromagnetism, "electrics" and "non-electrics" (Electrical conductor, conductors and Electrical insulator, insulators). The now-obsolete fluid theory of electricity was developed to explain electrical phenomena in terms of "vitreous" and "resinous" fluids (later recognized as positive and negative electrical charges). Electrochemistry was born with the discovery of voltaic electricity (which would provide a power source for later experimentation) and pyroelectricity. Around 1784, Coulomb's law mathematically described the strength of electrical attraction. The discovery that electricity could cause muscles to contracted was termed "Galvanic electricity".
In the new social sciences:
* Historical linguistics emerged in the late 18th century as a field after the discovery of the common origin what are now called Indo-European languages by philologist William Jones (philologist), William Jones.
* The fields of anthropology and paleoanthropology emerged in the 18th century, but much of early modern anthropology is now considered scientific racism.
* The 1776 multi-book publication ''The Wealth of Nations'' by Adam Smith is considered the foundational text of classical economics.
Scientific discovery would accelerate in the late modern period, and continues today.
Technology
Inventions of the early modern period included the Floating dock (impounded), floating dock, lifting tower, newspaper, grenade musket, lightning rod, bifocals, and Franklin stove. Early attempts at building a practical electrical telegraph were hindered because static electricity was the only source available.Enlightenment and reason
The Age of Enlightenment is also called the Age of Reason because it marked a change from the medieval tradition of scholasticism based on Christian dogma and the often Renaissance magic, occultist approach of Renaissance philosophy. Instead, reason became the central source of knowledge, beginning the era of modern philosophy, especially in Western philosophy. The period was typified in Europe by the great system-builders, philosophers who presented unified systems of epistemology, metaphysics, logic, and ethics and often politics and the physical sciences as well.
Early 17th-century philosophy is often called the Age of Rationalism and is considered to succeed Renaissance philosophy and precede the Age of Enlightenment, but some consider it as the earliest part of the Enlightenment era in philosophy, extending that era to two centuries. This era includes Isaac Newton's ''Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Principia'' and René Descartes' Cogito, ergo sum, "I think therefore I am" (1637). The 18th century saw the beginning of secularization in Europe, rising to notability in the wake of the French Revolution.
Immanuel Kant classified his predecessors into two schools: the Rationalism, rationalists and the Empiricism, empiricists, The three main rationalists are normally taken to have been René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, and Gottfried Leibniz.
Roger Williams founded Providence Plantations in New England, based on the principle of separation of church and state after being exiled by Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Enlightenment began at Harvard in 1646. The first great advances towards modern science were made in the mid-17th century, most notably the theory of gravity by Isaac Newton (1643–1727). Newton, Spinoza, John Locke (1632–1704) and Pierre Bayle (1647–1706) were philosophers sparking the ideas for the furthering of the Enlightenment.
French French art salons and academies, salon culture culminated in the Enlightenment's most influential publication, the great ''Encyclopédie'' (1751–1772), edited by Denis Diderot (1713–1784) with contributions by hundreds of leading philosophes (intellectuals) such as Voltaire (1694–1778) and Montesquieu (1689–1755). The Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns shook up the French Academy in the 1690s, elevating new discoveries over Greek and Roman wisdom. The French Enlightenment was received in Germany, notably fostered by Frederick the Great, the king of Prussia, and gave rise to a flowering of German philosophy, represented foremost by Immanuel Kant.
The French and German developments were further influential in Scottish Enlightenment, Scottish, Russian Enlightenment, Russian, Enlightenment in Spain, Spanish and Enlightenment in Poland, Polish philosophy.
The Enlightenment flourished until about 1790–1800, after which the emphasis on reason gave way to Romanticism's emphasis on emotion and a Counter-Enlightenment gained force.Humanism
With the adoption of large-scale printing after 1500, Italian Renaissance Humanism spread northward to France, Germany, Holland and England, where it became associated with the Protestant Reformation. Developing during the Enlightenment era, Renaissance humanism as an intellectual movement spread across Europe. The basic training of the humanist was to speak well and write (typically, in the form of a letter). The term ''umanista'' comes from the latter part of the 15th century. The people were associated with the ''studia humanitatis'', a novel curriculum that was competing with the ''quadrivium'' and scholastic logic. In France, pre-eminent Humanist Guillaume Budé (1467–1540) applied the philology, philological methods of Italian Humanism to the study of antique coinage and to legal history, composing a detailed commentary on Corpus Juris Civilis, Justinian's Code. Although a royal absolutist (and not a republican like the early Italian ''umanisti''), Budé was active in civic life, serving as a diplomat for Francis I of France, Francis I and helping to found the Collège de France, Collège des Lecteurs Royaux (later the Collège de France). Meanwhile, Marguerite de Navarre, the sister of Francis I, herself a poet, novelist and religious mystic,She was the author of ''Miroir de l'âme pécheresse'' (''The Mirror of a Sinful Soul''), published after her death, among other devotional poetry. See also "Marguerite de Navarre: Religious Reformist" in Jonathan A. Reid''King's sister—queen of dissent: Marguerite of Navarre (1492–1549) and her evangelical network''
(''Studies in medieval and Reformation traditions, 1573–4188''; v. 139). Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2009. (2 v.: (xxii, 795 p.) (v. 1), 9789004177611 (v. 2) gathered around her and protected a circle of vernacular poets and writers, including Clément Marot, Pierre de Ronsard and François Rabelais.
Death in the early modern period
Mortality rates
During the early modern period, thorough and accurate global data on mortality rates is limited for a number of reasons including disparities in medical practices and views on the dead. However, there still remains data from European countries that still holds valuable information on the mortality rates of infants during this era. In his book ''Life Under Pressure: Mortality and Living Standards in Europe and Asia, 1700–1900'', Tommy Bengtsson provides adequate information pertaining to the data of infant mortality rates in European countries as well as provide necessary contextual influences on these mortality rates.European infant mortality rates
Infant mortality was a global concern during the early modern period as many newborns would not survive into childhood. Bengsston provides comparative data on infant mortality averages in a variety of European towns, cities, regions and countries starting from the mid-1600s to the 1800s. These statistics are measured for infant deaths within the first month of every 1,000 births in a given area. For instance, the average infant mortality rate in what is now Germany was 108 infant deaths for every 1,000 births; in Bavaria, there were 140-190 infant deaths reported for every 1,000 births. In France, Beauvaisis reported 140-160 infants dying per every 1,000 babies born. In what is now Italy,Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
averaged 134 infant deaths per 1,000 births. In Geneva, 80-110 infants died per every 1,000 babies born. In Sweden, 70-95 infants died per 1,000 births in Linköping, 48 infants died per 1,000 births in Sundsvall, and 41 infants died per 1,000 births in Vastanfors.
Causes of infant mortality
Bengsston writes that climate conditions were the most important factor in determining infant mortality rates: "For the period from birth to the fifth birthday, [climate] is clearly the most important determinant of death". Winters proved to be harsh on families and their newborns, especially if the other seasons of the year were warmer. This seasonal drop in temperature was a lot for an infant's body to adapt to. For instance, Italy is home to a very warm climate in the summer, and the temperature drops immensely in the winter. This lends context to Bengsston writing that "the [Italian] winter peak was the cruelest: during the first 10 days of life, a newborn was four times more likely to die than in the summer". According to Bengsston, this trend existed amongst cities in different parts of Italy and in various parts of Europe even though cities operated under different economic and agricultural conditions. This leads Bengsston to his conclusion on what may have caused mortality rates in infants to spike during winter: "The strong protective effect of summer for neonatal deaths leads us to suppose that in many cases, these might be due to the insufficient heating systems of the houses or to the exposure of the newborn to cold during the baptism ceremony. This last hypothesis could explain why the effect was so strong in Italy".Capital punishment
During the early modern period, many societies' views on death changed greatly. With the implementation of new torture techniques, and increased public executions, people began to give more value to their life, and their body after death. Along with the views on death, methods of execution also changed. New devices to torture and execute criminals were invented. The number of criminals executed by gibbeting increased, as did the total rate of executions during the early modern period.End of the early modern period
The end of the early modern period is usually associated with the Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain around 1750, but began to make substantial changes in many European countries by around 1800.
The Age of Revolutions starts at the end of the early modern period and continues into the late modern period, denoting in the decline of Absolute monarchy, absolutism in Europe. Near the end of the early modern period were the Treaty of Paris (1783), Second Treaty of Paris which ended the American Revolution, the French Revolution in 1789, and the Napoleonic Wars. The Congress of Vienna in 1815 marked the end of this period of political upheaval and frequent war, with the rise of new concepts of nationalism and reorganization of military forces. 1815 is the latest year commonly reckoned as the end of the early modern period.
The French Revolutions
Toward the middle and latter stages of the Age of Revolution, the French political and social revolutions and radical change saw the French governmental structure transform. It was previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy. It changed to forms based on Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment principles of citizenship and inalienable rights. The first revolution led to government by the National Assembly (French Revolution), National Assembly, the second by the Legislative Assembly (France), Legislative Assembly, and the third by the French Directory, Directory.
The changes were accompanied by violent turmoil, which included the trial and execution of Louis XVI, vast bloodshed and repression during the Reign of Terror, and the French Revolutionary Wars involving every other major European power. Subsequent events that can be traced to the Revolution include the Napoleonic Wars, two separate restorations of the monarchy, and two additional revolutions as modern France took shape. In the following century, France would be governed at one point or another as a republic, constitutional monarchy, and two different empires.
See also
* Price revolution * Proto-globalization * Early modern warfare * Periodization * Atlantic history * Timeline of early modern history * Cuisine in the early modern worldNotes
References
Further reading
* * * * * * * * *Excerpt
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online review
904pp; short articles on Britain by experts. * * A highly influential statement. *
excerpt
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excerpt
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External links
fordham.edu Websites
from the introduction to the pioneering ''Cambridge Modern History'' (1902–1912)
Society for Renaissance Studies
Early Modern Culture
(archived 25 September 2011)
Early Modern Resources
Video films * : Crash Course (YouTube), Crash Course World History #18 * : Crash Course World History #19 * : Crash Course : World History #21 * : Crash Course World History #23 * : Crash Course World History #24 * : Crash Course World History #25 * : Crash Course World History #26 * : Crash Course World History #28 {{Authority control Early Modern period, Historical eras History of Europe by period Modern history, 15th century in Europe, . 16th century in Europe, . 17th century in Europe, . 18th century in Europe, . Articles which contain graphical timelines World history